Sergey Kaplich

Since the beginning of September, I’ve been searching for a job after being laid off from my previous role at the end of June.

The market is tough, lot’s of fake jobs, so it’s been pretty challenging to even land an interview. Still, I managed to get a few, and, well, not all of them were great — though not necessarily because of my performance.

Here are two examples I’d like to share.

The Good One

I applied for a design engineer role at an interesting startup. I know it’s a popular role right now, but I thought that with my experience on personal projects, work with Figma, and my love for design, I might have a chance.

My first interview was with a recruiter who asked me a lot about my experience and why I wanted to join their company. It wasn’t the usual generic talk; he actually seemed to want to get to know me better. By the end, he said I’d have a chance to speak with the hiring manager the next day.

The following day, I had another great conversation with the person who would be my manager. Again, it was an amazing talk, touching on work attitude, ethics, and experiences, both good and bad.

A week later, I had a technical interview with a senior engineer, which went well too. I reached the final rounds, where I was supposed to present my projects to the team. The presentation was fine, but I sensed something was off.

A few days later, I received a rejection with feedback. They were happy with my technical skills, but they were looking for someone with more design experience. Disappointing, but understandable.

At least now I know where I need to improve for next time. Overall, I left with a positive impression of the company and would definitely love to work there in the future if I get the chance.

The Bad One

I applied for a web engineering role. A few days later, I got an email from the recruiter: “Hi Sergey, I added a task to the job description. Please apply again and complete the task.”

The task looked like a code line that I needed to decipher — sounded interesting, but time consuming. And there was one more thing: the salary listed in the description had dropped by $30,000.

I followed up with the recruiter: “Hey! I saw you added an assignment, but the salary also changed. Is this an error, or is it the actual salary for the role?”

He replied that it wasn’t an error.

That was my first red flag. But the role still sounded interesting, and the task itself looked like a fun challenge, so I spent a few hours solving it. It was tricky, but I really enjoyed working on it.

I sent in the completed task, and a few days later, the recruiter replied that everything looked good and that the next step would be an initial interview.

I booked a time on his calendar, waited a week, and then, two hours before the interview, he messaged me saying the company had an onsite and he couldn’t find the time. He asked to reschedule for another day. Another red flag.

I booked a new meeting, waited another week, and on the morning of our rescheduled meeting, he messaged me again to say he wasn’t feeling well.

Okay, let’s try one more time.

In the meantime I noticed that they changed back the salary, but the team was changed, so it was kind of confusing to understand, what tasks I am supposed to work on.

Eventually, we had the conversation, though he was late. He apologized, and we had a decent talk. Recruiter said he’d get back to me next week to schedule the technical round. But instead, three days later, he sent me a rejection email, saying they had too many applicants.

That was a few weeks ago, and the role is still open.

I have no idea what was going on with that process, but I feel kind of lucky I didn’t end up there.

So yeah, the market is tough. There were other good (and not so good) interviews, but these ones were really special.

I’m still looking for my next role and hoping it’ll happen soon. And if you happen to be looking for an amazing web developer or frontend engineer, please let me know.