I've been doing Karat interviews for about three years and it's been incredible for my mental health. The work is extremely flexible and there is nothing to worry about when you're not working (I dread deadlines and I'm neurotic enough to never manage a good WLB at a regular SWE gig). The compensation is also pretty good. Apply on their website if interested (https://karat.com/) or hit me up at my username at google's mail service if you want a referral (though you shouldn't need one to get in the door, we're hiring pretty aggressively). Hope this helps.
Karat represents everything wrong with how we interview in the tech industry. After being in tech for dozens of years and having interviewed and hired hundreds of people, an interview with Karat was one of the experiences that shook me to the core and told me It was time I retired. I’ve seldom felt so dehumanized.
Karat is actually systematically building an algorithm that EXCLUDES diversity of thought. I spoke directly with their CEO who was not interested at all in diversity , but just wanted to make the process "scalable".
Here is the problem:
The more companies use Karat as a service, the more companies will NEVER get to hire engineers who are unable to pass the karat interview process! I have personally programmed highly complex distributed systems, algorithms, and more, yet I have a disability which makes it difficult if not impossible to pass a karat interview.
The karat interview is the gatekeeper to the other companies. Therefor, Karat is LITERALLY blocking software engineers from getting in the door at other companies. Any software engineer that cannot pass the karat format of interview will never be able to get a job at any company that requires a karat interview to begin!!!!!
I've had a karat interview before on behalf of Palantir and by the end of the interview I was less interested in Palantir (although thankfully I did move forward) than I was in Karat. I didn't end up looking too much into it. Do you think engineers with ~1 experience could get hired there for interviews? I am about to get promoted to SWE2 if that helps. I actually enjoy leetcode type problems and have solved over 800, so I think this would align with my interest.
for me, I was excited to interview with Indeed.com
However, their interview process requires a karat interview. Since I was unable to pass the karat interview (due to disability discrimination), I was unable to even speak with the team at Indeed!!!!!
Therefore, Indeed misses out, I miss out, and Karat gets paid.
Relatively to how much the corporations they work for make, it is. I guess for many people being exploited, as long as you have a roof over your head and can afford food is totally okay.
