My first experience in getting a job
The first idea of working for Opera Software came into my mind after watching the famous YouTube video(local copy) and looking through the list of current job openings on Opera website in the beginning of summer of 2010. Hmm, I noticed, that I mostly match requirements for some of engineering jobs! :)
And at the August of the same year I submitted my first resume to Opera Software. And it was quite swiftly rejected. My second attempt - in the beginning of 2011 - was also rejected. It was only after my third attempt, made in the May of 2011, when I received something looking like a positive feedback - a written test to answer.
I can't tell you what the test was about, I'll just say that I had fun answering some of its questions and submitted reply the same week.
After that was a time for a phone interview (it happened via Skype, actually). I talked to Olli and Huib - Desktop Team managers. At first I was asked several questions about Opera users community, then I was faced with some technical (pretty basic) and personal (strengths/weaknesses) questions, and was asked to ask any questions. It all took exactly 45 minutes, and was a very enjoyable experience.
Quite soon after that I was invited to an interview at St. Petersburg Opera office by Johan Borg. There I also met Ilya Shpankov - Russian Community outreach manager. From the start I was given an opportunity to make a 1-hour long speech on "how good am I and why you should hire me", and after that we discussed some problems of Russian Opera users community. After this interview I was even more cheerful than after previous one: I hardly could hold myself from jumping in the air!
After both interviews I wrote a single thank-you letter, describing how much I enjoyed both of them and concluding why I believe that I will fit in the desired position.
Soon after that I was invited to the Oslo Opera office, where a final interview took place. It was my first trip to Norway, so after the interview I spent several hours walking around the city and taking some photos (Note that I tried not to make "street view" photos, because they are already presented on Google Maps). At the interview itself I talked to the same managers who interviewed me via Skype, Karl Anders Øygard (the head of the whole desktop team) and Håvard, who tries to improve communication between Opera developers and English-speaking users - same thing I'm going to do for Russian-speaking users. We discussed problems of prioritizing bugs, opening bug tracking system, and others. At the end I had a chat with Kripanjali, HR manager - we talked about the weather differences in India, Oslo and St. Petersburg, different benefits of living in Norway and working for Opera. I got a feeling that she tries to change my mindset from "it's the job, not the salary that interests me" :)
About a week after the interview I received a long-waited email with a job offer to work for Opera Software. Hooray, my 90-days-long quest is finally over, and my more-then-one-year-old dream finally come true!