The interview process was extremely challenging; I don’t mean this in a bad way but there standards were obviously extremely high. The fact that it was this way though makes me feel extremely proud that I got an offer, and makes me feel like I deserved it. It is going to make me cherish the job all the more. I was going in at entry level or Software Engineer I position. I had an initial screening interview. As well as being extremely kind, the recruiter was incredibly helpful at telling me what to prepare for the technical test, and was an incredible recruiter who saw the best in me, realised my potential, and was incredibly helpful, supportive and encouraging from the get go. The next round was an interview with two engineers. I had a great time. The one thing that I would say is that the questions were very open ended. This requires incredible self-discipline. You have to be responsible for highlighting your strengths and make sure you don’t ramble. When there is less direction in the interview questions, you have to be more focused. I do think this is a good technique though as it allows the interviewers to get to know you. I like that the interviews are usually an hour; this gives you more time and as a neurodivergent person this gave me more time to express myself clearly and I loved that. I have found 30 minute interviews to be very intense. The next stage was a 3 hour take home task. I spent a huge amount of time learning Python and Django for this. This paid off. I would say don’t underestimate how difficult it will be. I found it very very challenging, but that was okay. The penultimate stages was an interview with two engineers to discuss my coding test. They were incredibly helpful and kind and supportive and I felt that they wanted me to succeed all the way through which was amazing. I came out of that interview feeling my absolute best. They asked me some tough technical which I just honestly said when I didn’t know something and then I worked my way through it and succeeded. The final stage was with the Head of Engineering. It was an incredible conversation which left me feeling so inspired about the product and the mission. This one was just 30 minutes but that was fine because it was designed to be a shorter interview. Again I was asked some technical questions and I had no idea how I’d done. I was very very glad and grateful when I found out that I’d succeeded. Halfway through the process I changed recruiter as my application was moved to a different division (this was a decision both parties loved so it worked out amazing). The new recruiter who took over was so great as well and has done an incredible job of getting me onboarded and so much more. Love both of the recruiters, and loved all of the engineers who interviewed me. Lastly I want to say that this process was extremely challenging but don’t let that deter you, especially to any fellow women out there and anyone struggling with confidence. If I had read how hard it was then I might have been put off but I did it and I surprised myself - and maybe you can, too?