This is my opinion...just want to get the legalities out of the way.
15 minutes with recruiting rep and 1 hr with "life" interviewer. All scheduling was done online and the overall experience was great.
The life interview everyone is talking about is nothing more than to compensate for Shopify's lack of people reading skills. I never cared about the interview nor do I need the money. I was a trader/hedge fund manager so I have f.u. money. I wanted to know what this "life" interview was all about so I applied.
The life interviewer was great. She started with the interview by asking me if I read about the life interview Shopify was so famous for. I said, yes.
She asked me to start with my high school years and move forward. I said, with a curious look on my face, "You know, I didn't have a lot of high school experience because I tested out of high school in my sophomore year and went straight to one of the best colleges in the U.S. Let me start when my was 4 YEARS OLD." That's right...I started my life story at 4 YEARS OLD. Hey, if we're going to talk about a candidate's life, lets start early and get into the psychology of it all.
I made sure my life story did not reach my high school years. 40 minutes into the interview, she said I needed to move forward to the present. I wanted to make sure Shopify's life interview was not about the candidate's resume, since they claim to be holistic in their life interview approach. To my dismay, this was not the case.
During the life interview, I covertly cornered the interviewer to see if she had read my resume to verify my work timelines and expertise, and she did. Thus, Shopify's life interviewers, regardless of their claims, do thoroughly know your resume. The life interviewers DO READ YOUR RESUME.
A little tidbit: the interviewer tried to hide her yawning twice by sipping coffee. She wasn't interviewing me...I was interviewing her.
Lastly, the process was efficient and simple and the interviewers were great. But don't believe their life interview hype. It's just another method to compensate for poor people reading skills and not about being holistic or gauging a candidate's passion.
Nothing new or inspiring here. I'm more intrigued with Elon Musk's and Steve Job's interview stories.