Some tips on The Thoughtworks Interview Process
I recently checked the statistics for my blog and I was surprised to find that one of top reason that someone came to my blog was because I had tagged a previous article with the “Thoughtworks interview process” or something to that effect. Unfortunately for those people, the article was brief, and didn’t reveal much more than the Thoughtworks interview info page.
Given that I have been involved in the interview process at thoughtworks, I thought I would share my perspective for anyone who’s interested - the perspective of a developer at Thoughtworks that may be interviewing you at some point.
General Considerations
Here are some general consideration that go through my mind when I’m evaluating a candidate.
1. Are you a top notch developer
2. How much do you know about Agile, and do you have experience in Agile
3. Are you a fit for consulting - ie: can you travel, will you be mesh well in a variety of client environments
4. Are you generally interested in Technology
5. Will we want to work with you, are you fun to work with and would I learn from you
6. Are you poly-skilled - will you be able to work in many programming languages, platforms, and frameworks
7. Are you open to learning / are you open to new ideas
Specific Tips
1. Spend some time researching us and have an idea what we care about. This doesn’t mean you have to know a detailed history of the company, but you should have an idea of some higher level points of who/why/what we are.
2. Take the code submission seriously. This is the one of the first major gates that needs to be passed to get to the interview process. It’s your chance to express to us your coding philosophy. Don’t communcate “I don’t care about this part” or “I didn’t have time to do it well.”
3. Don’t try to tell us what you think we want to hear. Don’t try to show that you have more knowledge/experience than you do; it’s very easy to spot that. Be yourself, honestly express what you know and don’t, and what you are interested in, or not.
4. Have fun. We hope to have fun on days were we interview people, and it’s great when the candidates have a good time as well.
5. Get a good nights sleep before the day of the interview. It’s going to be a long day, and you don’t want to try to swing it on 4 hours of sleep.
If you don’t get in, don’t worry
1. There are many points of failure - Our process is not easy. Unlike the way many other companies interview developers, candidates don’t just show up and talk to a few tech-lead or architect people. This means that if you have an “off day” there are more stages that it can affect.
2. Our process has variation - There is no perfect pass/fail criteria in the process. It depends on a myriad of factors that might be different on a different day.
3. Perhaps you just weren’t a good fit overall And that’s okay. No one is able to work anywhere. You are probably exactly what someone is looking for.
4. You might not be ready yet, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t be next time around. Sometimes, there are people that have the right background, and the right attitude, but they are a little short on experience or skill-sets.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Hello,
Thought I’d add something… the thing that caught me off-guard, from the interviewee side, was that a lot of it focused on what sort of person I am. What are your other interests, hobbies, goals, what do you think about -non technical thing-? Overall I think the technical talk only got about half of the interview time.
But really I just wanted to comment.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I went through the process couple of weeks back (India). They told me I had some bright spots but I needed to get some experience since I had just 8 months of work-ex. They even said that they will give a list with few books that I should go through before applying again. Overall I loved the hiring process. I was evaluated based on various aspects. But I suppose I received a short feedback. Had they mentioned what exactly I need to improve upon, it would have been better. I emailed them last week asking for a detailed feedback. No response yet. I managed to get one though from an inside source.
IMHO, If you think you are good at software development, you should apply here. Not just because it is one of the best software firms to work at but even if things don’t workout, the evaluation process will expose your strengths and weakness and will shed a light on your areas of improvement.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Hey Chirantan,
How much time does thoughtWorks take to notify if you are offered a job or u are rejected?
thanks,
mark
September 16th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Hi,
I was recently approached by Thoughtworks for an interview. I currently have the 3 coding problems in front of me and I am wondering which one to pick. Does it matter? Will it affect the screening?
Please let me know.
Thank you!
Prama
September 16th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Well, I would say that you can rank them in terms of difficulty. A harder problem might get you a bonus point with some graders. However, the harder the problem, generally, the more code it takes to solve which results in more chances to make mistakes that could result in a bad grade. On the other hand, poor techniques on an easier problem is probably judged more negatively.
I would say that you should pick whichever problem you feel you can best solve. Assuming you can provide a great solution, it doesn’t matter which problem you solve.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Hi,
This might not necessarily have an exact answer, but generally, once i submit the code, in how much time does Thoughtworks revert back to me?
Also, pessimistically speaking, do they inform me even if it doesnt work out? Some companies have this policy of silence (instead of letting the candidate know)!
October 1st, 2009 at 8:49 am
@Nikhil - They will always get back to you with a response. Sometimes the process takes a few weeks. If at any time you want an update, contact your recruiter and they should let you know what the likely timeframe is.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Thanks Kris; reassuring to know they don’t leave people hanging! Great blog; came here while googling for thoughtworks recruitment process, ended up reading many of your other posts too.
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:51 am
Hi Chirantan,
You have mentioned that thoughtworks has given some books to refer. can u please post those books name in this blog or can u pls mail me those to sathish.infotech@gmail.com. It will be very much helpful for me.
Thanx a lot…..
April 10th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I second Sathish’s request. Chirantan If you can, email me or post here a list of the books they gave you after the interview.
rsmaniak@gmail.com
Thanks!
May 14th, 2010 at 12:59 am
Yeah, one who would like to cruise thier career track in a fast pace can always consider ThoughWorks as a choice. Sure working with a company like TW will be fun too.