Application Process & Interviews at Thoughtworks

Multiple stages of interview including recruiter interview, technical interviews (online test and pair programming), a cultural-fit interview, and short presentation.

It is a long series of interviews, very varied in areas. It's likely changed since I was hired, but for me as a grad dev in 2019 it comprised of the following interviews: - Phone call - The grad recruiter had a chat with me over the phone, just getting to know who I was, asking questions about my resume & what I value in a workplace. - Take home Coding Assignment - I was given 3 assignments to choose between in a few languages & a few days to complete it. - Technical interview - I went in & had 2 developers ask me about my assignment (& my logic behind it) & pair with me to add testing/improvements. - cultural interview - Was given a deck of question cards & spent 20-30mins answering random ones with 2 current empoyees (Eg. what is something you're proudest of? How have you dealt with conflict in the past? If you didn't have to worry about money/time what is something you'd most want to create? ect.) - presentation - I was asked to make a 5-10min presentation on something important to me/ I was interested in (not technological) - consulting interview - 2 current Employees pretended to be horrible clients for 15 mins& I had to figure out how to manage them ("So what's the project?" "we have to win" "win what?" "the competition" "....what competition?" ect & having each of them have completely different ideas of success)

It might have changed since I interviewed - I went through a telephone screening, had to do a coding project, a pairing interview, a cultural interview, and finally a consulting interview.

I had 4 interviews and this is probably the hardest interview process i have participated in. They were very timely in informing me oh my progress and gave me good visibility to what next.

1. Initial CV screen 2. Phone interview screen 3. Take home coding assignment challenge (now replaced with hackerrank challenge) 4. Pair programming interview going through my assignment code (now replaced with a standardised code base to review and improve in the language of your choice) 5. Cultural values Interview 6. 15 mins presentation talking about a time you worked in a team followed by 15 mins Q&A

Initial interview. Online technical assessment on basic coding and comp sci topics.

I was asked questions about my background, why I was interested in working here, about how I've worked in teams, and about Agile.

-

I can't remember the exact questions I was asked, but the culture interview was the hardest. Questions to evaluate my character and fit within the company.

Typical interview questions - why this company? etc Competency based questions e.g. tell me about a time where you.. Straight forward developer questions - nothing about algorithms or Big O notation, they wanted to know what you were thinking and how you would make improvements to the code.

What made you want to become a software developer? Why choose Thoughtworks?

Do your research into the company and its core values (particularly, social justice, Agile development).

The coding interview is less about the quality of your take home project & more about your willingness take feedback & work with the interviewers to improve it.

Be up to date with world news (to a degree), be familiar with your chosen tech stack, be confident.

Be open minded, and reflective.

Practise getting used to using Hackerrank and the type of challenges on there. Read about Test Driven Development and be able to explain it. Read about clean code and common code smells. Practise talking through a code base and talking about the changes you are making with a friend. For the cultural values interview read about Thooughtworks views on social and economic equality. When applying, focus on your experiences that make you unique compared to other applicants. What makes you "you".

Bring your genuine and honest personality and be prepared to discuss your inner ethics and social motives that you wouldn't usually discuss in an interview.