by 3V1L5H0073R
on 06/10/2023 - 17:17
didn't think that was gonna happen, but that's life sometimes, innit? might as well appreciate the opportunity that I've received. I might as well start from the beginning, because it was about as underwhelming as any other job application I found, where I just made a random shot at another LinkedIn job listing, this time for Mercedes, wooow cool ok I'll totally get that, might as well. So yeah I submit my details, with no cover letter, mind you. And they email me later that day.
I applied at 9th August at like 3pm, and got a factors test sent back to me at 10pm. I left it 'til a few days later but did it. I was hyping it up to be something elaborate and crazy like those aptitude tests with all the funky shape patterns, but this was literally a 10minute ordeal of answering questions on a scale of "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree". answered as honestly as I could, with answers I know they'd be into. A lot of questions are simple, asking about how you feel as like a "team leader" or "taking on new opportunities" and stuff.
On 8th September, I get an email from HR asking if they want me to also send my application to the Race Team. sure why not, and also asked for my GitHub profile because they want me to do a coding test and it has a deadline for 18th September. For some reason, I didn't see that I got this emaiil, because I am stupid. On the 12th, I once again get the same email and finally respond to it. An invitation to a repo for a test comes back to me a few hours. Keep in mind, I wasted 4 days by not seeing the original email, and I have only realised that as I write this now, reading my email history. Moron.
So yeah, read the email on Tuesday. The repo was made by a dude on the team named "mbgp-harry". There was also a contributor, someone named "aaron-mf1", whom had a Spongebob pfp of him doing the "IMAGINATION" rainbow in the box. I guess that lightened things up a bit. The test was written out in the README.md, and the idea was to make a web app for tyre engineers to manage race weekends. Sounded kinda easier on paper, but was crazier the more you worked on it.
Started work on Wednesday, with me doing a basic plan. Chose to use C# and ASP.net despite having no experience in the latter, since it may be better suited than JSPs. Glad I did, but learning a new technology just to do this is a wildcard choice. In my case, I did it to prove my adaptability and to finally start learning a technology that most companies use anyway, according to job descriptions. So that day I was mostly learning how to use the MVC thing in ASP.net using a yt tutorial. Thursday, started making a dent in the project, making the basic pages, the SQL (well, migrations as they call it).
Friday, this was a meaty day, I call it the worst day of the year, where I try to create the main page that does 90% of the functionality asked for in the code description. Hardcore. Was just a TON of JS code, lots of boilerplate-ry-ness. Hit a hurdle at 10pm where I realised I messed up in reading the code description. Was just thinking "this is fucked." genuinely. Chose not to sit there and wait/panic, and just in that moment, started making the changes in the table of what I think it should be, and was working on it straight for another few hours. There was a next door party going on, and the total contrast of that with me working in the dark on this project for the entire day was darkly comedic. I didn't even finish the code in the end, got 85% of the way there in the end. Slept on it, thinking hopefully I can get some stuff done tomorrow with a less fried mind.
Saturday comes around, and ik my time is limited because I have a concert for Dexys. Started work on finishing that dreaded page, and I do it in 30 minutes. Seriously. Sleeping on issues is like the best word of advice for anyone, as it has always worked for me. Not only did that relieve a lot of pressure, but the features I had to come up and do next, I thought of crazy stupid workarounds of doing instead. Suddenly I went from 80mph to 20, and although that may not be great because the sooner this is finished, the better, it made the whole process more enjoyable. Came to the concert, taking it as an almost-reward, and acknowledging that work was nearly over.
Sunday, just finish crap off and come up with things to write for the read me file. Pushed it all and that was it.
on 27th September, I get an email saying that they reviewed that test and got test scores, and that I'm invited to the assessment centre on 4th October, a Wednesday. huh, ok, cool. I told virtually nobody about this cuz I hate building things up. Infact, only the day prior to going, I told two people, and they weren't even family. They both were gassed af. To me though, I read glassdoors reviews and stuff, and thought that this company may not be the craziest thing to work for cuz of few opportunities for career growth (apparently) and dusty old-fashioned management that screws the little cogs over, which sucks. But the company is a big name, and sounds cool to virtually everyone.
ironed my clothes and got ready the day before. went to sleep at 1am, and it was garbage. had some nerves despite trying to forget and not care about it. was half-hallucinating about car engines and crap cuz of the company involved, and the other half of me saying to just think of nothing and sleep. Overall, I was half-asleep, well just super rested, and got on with it. Got up ra early and set off, wearing a white collar shirt and black trousers. Driving took ages, but whatever.
Got there at the gates, went through and asked a guy where to park, and he pointed me the way, but it was back out the gates. The gate back out was closed and I assumed I would need a card for it, so right on front of the door guys, I saw that the other gate was open and so drove on the wrong side of the road to go around the fence. Saw the guy raise his arms like "wtf dude". Parked, walked back, and got a talking to. Guy in the booth was kinda slumped in his chair, but got up immediately when I said I was here for the assessment centre, and then he literally just said "right. Not a good start to the day, is it, Mr. 3V1L5H0073R?" and talked about how a truck that was coming could ran straight over my "little" car. the other guy outside who pointed me the way, talked to me in a nicer manner about it, about how THEY can get done for what I did. uhuhhhh, whoops, sorry!
Got to reception, and just like in the videos, it had this F1 car just sitting there, one that was actually used in an F1 race. it was very show-y. there was one dude, sitting in a chair, the earliest guy so far. it was 8:41am and our alloted time was for 9am. More guys came over time, some late, but it didn't matter because nothing really lifted off until like 9:20am. I still remember all the guys I was with too. They were all suave gents. Not really the most show-off-y of guys and were all here because they knew they were given an opportunity, and that was to be appreciated.
So yeah, there were only 5 of us. That's kinda shocking. Considering job listings like these get hundreds of applicants, for this to wittle down to just 5 is utter insanity. All of us had completed the test, so I assumed that THAT was the criteria? which that alone, is insane, because I assumed you were never meant to complete the test in the first place, because it was too hard for such a short timeframe (made shorter by me not reading my emails).
We get taken to our home for the day, the show-y meeting room with all the trophies on display, as well as another F1 car, y'know just incase. Lovely HR lady was with us the whole day, and man can she talk. Everytime there was about to be a dead silence, she'd go on for another 5 minutes. Anyway, there was a table with sheets of paper with namebadges on top of them, all arranged in a cool circle. There was still one leftover, for that one guy I mentioned. Maybe they had flight issues? idk man.
The structure of the day would be this: 4 interviews in the same room, + 1 break, a lunch at the end of it all, and then a group assessment, before a wrap-up. The interviews would rotate with each of us
wrote this as part of a review on Glassdoor. idk why I got lazy and decided not to finish writing this, because there are some questions I would've liked to have remembered. will write as fragments after this though.
Applied and did an online factors test on the 9th August. This was answering simple questions (stuff like how you feel as a "team leader", or "taking on new opportunities", etc.) from a scale of "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree".
On 8th September, I get invited to a coding test on a GitHub repository. The task was to write a web application that allows tyre engineers to create sessions in race weekends, and allocating tyre sets across sessions. I think the deadline for this was 18th September (so 10 days later). You were allowed to use any technologies you preferred.
On 27th September, I get invited to their HQ on 4th October, specifically in the assessment centre. I think there were over 800 applicants for this role, and I was one of 5 to be there on the day. It was a full from 9am - 3pm. Each candidate had a given schedule and it comprised of 4 rotating interviews with different staff, a self-reflection task, a 30min break, a HQ tour, and a 45min group exercise at the end. Most of the day was spent in the same sort-of common room, with all interviews taking place on the lunch tables.
The interviews were nice and the interviewers were very approachable. Three of them were one-on-one, with one having two interviewers. One was talking about the coding test and asking how you would write an algorithm (in this case, a sorting algorithm). Another was a few questions on how you would approach designing system they specify, and this was more conversational. The third one was more about you, why you are interested in programming, what drove you to where you are now, etc, and why you would want to work here. The fourth was about your experiences (e.g. tell me about a time you ran into a difficulty and how you dealt with it).
The lunch was nice: a set of sandwiches with some vegan options, plus tea, coffee and coke cans. The tour was also pretty cool too, usually blowing everyone's minds.
The group exercise at the end required the candidates to read a sheet of instructions in silence for 5 minutes, and then perform a group task for 45 minutes (which in our case, was to make a hypothetical F1 track together using plastic pieces, following the criteria set out on the sheet), and then perform a presentation to the staff for 5 minutes.