I received a message from one of the software engineers at NIDO on Linkedin for the Junior Robotics Engineer role.
Round 1:
First, he talked about the company and then he explained the job. At the time I didn’t have any robotics experience and I told him the same. He said the job requires having a software background and experience with C++.
- Tell me about yourself?
- How did you get into software development/engineering and what have done to excel in it?
- Concepts of C++
- He explained to me about the ROS framework and its features and concepts. He asked me to study the ROS framework and explore it. He also talked about the location of the company and expressed that the job requires physical presence. He offered me assistance regarding location and commute. He give me an assignment that focused on ROS, C++, and Python. You can view it here. I manage to do the assignment and submitted it to him and told him about the concepts I learned.
- We discussed the solution I provided. According to him, I did a decent amount of work not perfect, and told me about the next interview time and that it will be conducted by the product manager.
Round 2:
- She asked me about the previous work that I had done and the technologies I have been involved with. She asked me about my college placement and I told her about the same.
- She asked me that the job requires software development as well as robotics so how do I feel about it.
- She then explained to me the various problems and concepts related to robotics and asked me to learn the concepts around the same and contact me when I’m ready to discuss them.
Round 3:
- The product manager and I discussed the concepts of robotics, software architecture, company requirements, and the business aspect.
- She then told me that she was happy with my learning and that I’ll receive a call from HR. She asked me to relocate quickly if possible and the offer I got from my college placement. However, I declined to relocate until the conversation with HR.
- She asked me whether I’ll be able to help another team with PHP as a freelancer which I did for one day at the Mumbai branch for which I didn’t receive any compensation but I decide to let it go because of the learning experience that I got from them.
Round 4:
- HR contacted me and asked me to send my resume. After that, I didn’t receive any contact for days. I messaged my interviewers about it and they said that HR will contact me soon. I received a call from HR. He asked that whether I’m applying for the full stack position after going through my resume I believe.
- I told him that I have been interviewed for the junior robotics position and I asked him whether he has contacted my previous interviewers to which he replied yes which was weird considering his questions. He asked me about relocating to the company manufacturing unit and my excepted salary. After that, he said that he will talk to the management about excepted salary.
- The next day he contacted me and told me that the company can’t offer me my excepted salary but can offer their standard compensation. My excepted salary was based on the offer I got from my college placement.
- After hearing the offer I told him that it is unfortunate that I won’t be able to accept the offered compensation then he asked him about my excepted salary again and then I offer a compromised offer and he said to me that he’ll talk to the management again.
The next day I didn’t receive any contact so I message him about it and he said that they wouldn’t be able to offer anything other than their standard compensation.