by arp242 on 6/1/25, 7:16 PM
This seems to be the canonical Canonical interview process – I've heard several stories like this over the years. It's always the same: interview process is overly long and a bit ridiculous, but things go relatively well. And then at the final stage Shuttleworth shows up to be a dick with a bizarre focus on high school, after which it's rejected.
by theletterf on 6/1/25, 9:15 PM
Most of the folks I know that work or have worked at Canonical are smart and deeply humble, even worryingly so. I say "worryingly" in the sense that their hiring process seems to weed out people who could speak up, question authority or otherwise show hints of critical thinking. Not my cup of tea.
by aucisson_masque on 6/1/25, 9:51 PM
The interview process says a lot about a company.
Honestly, I would have run away at the very beginning with this weird focus on high school.
If you can't be professional in your recruitment process, it's a big red flag.
Assuming everything is true, he did actually dodge a bullet.
by retrobox on 6/1/25, 8:44 PM
I remember applying for a position a few years back. After I saw a bunch of questions related to high school I noped out due to weird vibes. Sounds like it was a good call
by loloquwowndueo on 6/1/25, 9:51 PM
> I got three "strong yes", eight "yes", and a single "no" from Mark Shuttleworth
Mark interviews are always the last in the process but since they’re the only ones that carry an automatic fail despite all other interviewer scores, they should be done first.
by AnotherGoodName on 6/1/25, 10:30 PM
Similar experiences. I figured there's no way they wouldn't take me to the next round given my background. Answered GPA question honestly and got the auto rejected email in minutes.
Really weird as someone who's worked at a staff+ level at multiple FAANGs with over 20 years experience. Apparently my GPA from over 20 years ago isn't high enough for Canonical.
by tkzed49 on 6/1/25, 8:18 PM
Shuttleworth sounds like a complete tool. His position seems to select for that.
by Lu2025 on 6/1/25, 3:10 PM
> At some point, someone bought him a plate, and he started to eat, without excusing himself about doing so
Whoa, that dude is full of himself.
by bananapub on 6/1/25, 5:04 PM
I am fascinated at how this has actually lasted so long without imploding the place - did Mark stop being a cheapskate on salary so people will tolerate this process? Or is it just banking on their good name and mostly getting to work on free software?
by artyom on 6/1/25, 3:22 PM
I had the same experience. The interview process was super long and nowhere near completion, got through a few phases, got rejected with no explanation in the middle of it.
The "psychometric assessments" were specially dumb and I started questioning if I wanted to work at Canonical at that time anyway.
There's places where HR and processes as a whole look like just incompetency. And other places where the amount of people, processes and steps sounds like a mafia to employ a lot of people to achieve absolutely nothing (32,000 open positions?). This REALLY sounds like the latter (even Mark complains about why he's wasting time with a duplicate application).
Very very clever actionable using GDPR. And totally within the spirit of the law. I'll use it.
by michael_forrest on 6/8/25, 7:56 AM
I lasted about 18 months at Canonical (thankfully I didn’t have to deal with this interview process) and I can say that this description of an interaction with Shuttleworth rings true. The poster really did dodge a bullet by not getting hired. Enough time has passed that this now gives me amusement instead of making me feel outright angry. Shuttleworth is an autocratic micromanager who sprinkles arbitrary mandates into every aspect of the business, which accumulate to make it impossible to deliver anything effectively. The promise of the project was huge (this was over 10 years ago) and he hired many brilliant people but then largely ignored their expertise in favour of his own whims. You may notice that the things Ubuntu does well are mostly things that he didn’t find interesting enough to interfere with.
by jofla_net on 6/1/25, 2:50 PM
What an interesting use of GDPR.
Boy do i wish there was something analogous where i am.
Have had identical experiences with large-named places.
I guess its just hard to run a fan club where everyone wants in, you have to grasp at straws to dismiss. Paraeto at work again.
by emamoah on 6/3/25, 9:43 AM
The "top 10%" thing doesn't make sense mathematically. That depends on the average performance of your classmates. If you were in a school with brilliant students, in a small class, you could be in the top 50%. But with the same performance, just attending a different (low performing) school could put you in the top 5%.
So, keeping performance constant, attending a lower-performing school gives you a higher chance of being accepted at canonical. How crazy is that?
by Bendy on 6/1/25, 5:49 PM
So it’s another inhumane interview process from a company led by an apparent psychopath. The author certainly dodged a bullet and graciously wrote this warning. Don’t work for them, they are vampires. Go elsewhere, your life is worth more and you always have a choice.
by animitronix on 6/1/25, 3:32 PM
"So now I'm really curious about the decision process here, as it seems that every interviewer's opinion is ignored if Shuttleworth puts some red marks."
Umm yes? That's how it works everywhere, highest boss in the chain has right of refusal on new hires.
by hamidr on 6/1/25, 7:21 PM
Imagine a world where you are only allowed to work for cooperations such a this.
Putting all the bureaucracy aside, to be filtered like this is such a Kafkaesque feeling.
by rcarmo on 6/2/25, 6:30 AM
Some of this tracks, but I don’t remember there begin so many steps when I applied (almost a decade ago). Mark was civil if a tad unconventional, but I remember the biggest reason I said no was that it turned out to be a contract position, not an FTE.
by tonoto on 6/2/25, 11:30 AM
Canonical brought us some interesting concepts, like cloud-init, and it's been my first choice for cloud-images, but this toxic culture of them motivates me to choose a better image. Or just something like Nixos.
by hintymad on 6/2/25, 12:08 AM
> Their application was a duplicate with the same email address,
Why do people use "they" and "their" for a single person? Is this the requirement for not misgendering someone?
by frosting1337 on 6/2/25, 1:27 AM
Anyone know what "that canonical article" is, as referenced at the very end of the timeline?
by heldrida on 6/1/25, 6:56 PM
Unbelievable!
by vkaku on 6/1/25, 5:23 PM
These days, the effort required for company-specific long essay applications hardly seems justified. With Generative AI readily available, it’s easy to tailor essays to appeal to particular—even narcissistic—preferences, unless someone genuinely enjoys the writing process.
As a result, the whole system has devolved into a “garbage in, garbage out” exercise. What began as a meaningful way to assess candidates has largely been undermined, and the original intent behind these evaluations—whether skills-based or culture fit—has been lost.
by sltr on 6/2/25, 5:49 PM
I interviewed in November 2022. Sounds unchanged, with the essay (24-pages) and bizarre focus on my early life.
Progressed pretty far into the process. 94% on intelligence assessment and positive on the behavioral. Then in a call with HR, I was was told a COVID vaccine was required. I said I was unwilling to take an mRNA vaccine. Rejected by email after that. (I did get Novavax a couple of months later when it became available in my area).
Overall, my impression was negative. Success at Canonical means you fit into a narrow model, subject yourself to unwarranted character judgments, and don't have an opinion about much.
by hintymad on 6/2/25, 12:06 AM
> So I exercised my GDPR rights, and asked to be communicated everything pertaining to my interviews.
This is amazing. Does the US have a similar law for us to get interview feedbacks like this? I can become a single-issue voter for this law /jk
by matumba on 6/6/25, 1:20 PM
Now I feel better about the immediate rejections from Canonical the couple of times I applied there.