A thread on the job application process at Canonical written by Sara Sarafavi on 2024-03-19.
Ok I’m doin the thread I said I wanted to do last week. (feel free to mute unless you enjoy a little second-hand drama as a Monday morning treat)
Attn #devrel people! Are you job hunting? Does this pic of search results look familiar? Have you ever seen a bunch of job postings like this from Canonical and thought “gee I should apply to one of these”?
I’m here to tell you:
IT’S A TRAP!
In early 2023 I spent ~3 months interviewing for this role at Canonical: I made it all the way to Shuttleworth himself turning me down.
The same req# I applied to is live today: watch and you’ll start to notice this globally-remote job regularly re-posted across multiple major cities in order to keep the linkedin search spam fresh.
IMO this role goes unfilled as long as they’re private. If you’re still not convinced, allow me to share my cautionary tale…
So let me be super clear: I read all the HN threads, the Reddit discussions, and the Glassdoor reviews, and (I thought) I knew what I was getting into with their interview process. I still chose to apply because Canonical, and this role in particular, is a niche within a niche, and it’s my niche. I would have kicked ass.
If you’re actually considering applying you probably feel the same way.
Okay so what you really want to know about is the application & interview process. Let’s go.
1: THE ESSAY QUESTIONS
Google it, glassdoor it, read the HN and reddit threads. Everyone knows about these. I knew about them going into it. I did it anyway. I wrote 18 pages. Pic is 1 of 4 sections (~30 Qs total).
Fun fact about me: I never went to high school!
(This is called “foreshadowing”)
- THE IQ TEST
Sorry I mean "psychometric assessments”. Rotate shapes in your head. Spot the odd word out in a group of related words. Timed number-related tasks. Nonsense that has no actual relevance to work performance. I scored “above average” on these, for exactly what that is worth.
- ACTUALLY TALKING TO HUMANS
Finally! We’re weeks into the process at this point.
An initial round of four hour-long technical and skill-assessment interviews. These were actually quite enjoyable, and the individual interviewers were as a whole lovely people.
Of note: every interviewer warned me, unprompted, in various words that the CEO was "difficult".
- JUST KIDDING MORE TESTS
A timed personality test. "Pick which of these words most applies to you", ad infinitum.
- A WILD HUMAN APPEARS
After “passing” the personality test, an hour-long behavioral interview with a real-life HR person; textbook STAR-method questions. At the end of the hour I was able to discuss comp and benefits for the first time. I learned the role reported directly to the CEO.
- “LATE STAGE”: MORE HUMANS
At this point I’m notified I’ve made it to the “late stage”. Three more hour-long technical and skill-based interviews are scheduled. Again, these were fine, reasonably challenging, and the individuals themselves completely pleasant to speak with.
- THE VERBAL OFFER
Canonical apps are run by a “hiring lead” who’s not a recruiter or the hiring manager. After months of emails, I finally get a call from my lead.
On the call I learn his "only concern" was my personality test indicated I was not "dominant" enough. Canonical wants dominant people. He asks me to persuade him I can do the job. Whatever I said apparently worked: "he would like to move forward with an offer". The offer just has to clear finance, HR, and CEO approval.
I wait.
- INTERVIEW WITH A CEO
An hour-long interview with the CEO is scheduled. I’m excited to finally speak to the de facto hiring manager. To finally get to talk about my vision for the role and my philosophies of management and devrel. I also prep for more technical skill grilling just in case.
Plus, like, I’m a fuckin fangirl, right? I’m looking forward to this call.
- THE CALL
Mark begins our call by saying: "I've read your essay responses. You say you didn't go to high school. Generally I only want people who are in the top 5%. You obviously can't prove that applies to you. So tell me why I should believe you were the equivalent to the top 5% of your peers at 16."
The next hour is spent picking through my educational background and early employment choices. To be clear, I’m an old lady: this is not recent history. He wanted to know what standardized exam I took to get into college and what I scored. He asked if I could "prove" that score. He wanted to know why I chose my major and school. He asked about a specific place I lived near >20 years ago, and I realize he’s looking at a map as we talk. We run over-time.
We never did talk about the actual work.
- THE END
The day after that call I received a curt rejection email saying Canonical would not be moving forward with me as a candidate. I asked if there was any feedback, and I hear that the CEO call "could have gone better" and I "had not persuaded Mark that I had a strong understanding of what Canonical needs".
With their three months of assessment and notes on me, I ask what next steps would be if I wanted to explore other roles at the company. I never received a response.
BY THE NUMBERS
Pages of essays written: 18
Psychometric evaluations: 3
Personality test: 1
Number of interviews: 10+
Days between first and last contact: 107
Number of women I spoke to throughout the entire fucking process: 0
Emotional trauma: priceless
If you’ve made it this far, 1) congrats, 2) I hope you hear what I’m trying to say:
Until the company moves forward… don’t waste your time on a Canonical job posting. You’re worth more than that!
My tale has a happy ending and I’m very pleased with where I landed not long after this saga, so this is now just a funny story-slash-cautionary tale.
BUT I know a lot of good #devrel people who are looking for new gigs today, and I’d love to introduce you to them -- if you’re hiring give a shout!
PS: yes I still run Ubuntu on literally all of my (work+play) machines, and that won’t change any time soon… a community is more than any single person, no matter how big that person thinks they are.