It was in January 2021, I applied at Pagely. Then we scheduled the interview, and it did not go well. I gave approximate or wrong answers to most questions, and I realized how my knowledge had decreased. The interview was a pity. I went out of it feeling ashamed of myself.
I applied to Pagely because I wanted something new. My work at my previous company had become monotonous and very little challenging. Coupled with that, I had new family responsibilities with a partner (now my wife) and my daughter. I was also going through hard times financially, as I had lost significant money in a failed investment.
After the interview, I decided to change my learning process and continue to apply. The current learning process wasn’t going well because I had become lazy.
Then, I applied for platform.sh, Elementor, WP Rocket me, WP Engine, Canonical. All of them failed.
I was building an educational site for computer science students at the GCE O level during this time. In the course of making the site, I wanted to increase its performance; that is how I stumbled upon the Kinsta blog. I was impressed by the quality of the articles; that is how I decided to apply for the Support Engineer post on their careers page.
I had learned from my failed applications. I decided to prepare thoroughly. I went through most of their blog articles and other key knowledge areas listed in the Job description. I even Searched for past interview questions and found the Glassdoor site valuable.
By this time, I had reached the climax of financial turmoil in my personal life. I had borrowed money to invest. The company having my investment was unable to give me back any profits or the principal amount invested. I had to pay back the loan from my salary, which was very difficult. I started legal action against them, but that indebted me further as I borrowed money for this.
I had also told my father-in-law that we were coming to take his daughter (future wife) by April 2021 as I was counting on my investments. I had to cancel this and humiliate myself in front of him. Thankfully, he is such a fantastic person that he treats me as his son. He accepted that we reschedule the traditional wedding for the future.
I needed a new job by every means, and so I gave everything possible to get the job at Kinsta. I started being more familiar with LXC/ LXD, Nginx, WP CLI etc
I got the preliminary call from the HR officer and later scheduled the 1st interview with the recruiter.
The interview was excellent, as I learned from my mistakes when doing the call with Pagely. The second interview was more technical and Practical. I gave the best of me. I outperformed on the questions on Linux and WordPress, but did poorly in the Nginx ones. Both interviewers were remarkable, human and fun.
I waited for the results for a month and I was already nervous. When the results were out, I was sad as they had not taken me. The HR officer told me that I was, nevertheless, one of their top candidates and that should a position open up; they would contact me if I were still interested. This was indeed an exception to Kinsta recruitment process – Usually, when you are not up to the tasks, you will have to reapply. With this, I was feeling both sad and happy. One part of me was sad because I will not believe they would contact me again. The other part was happy because at least, I had another chance.
This failure at Kinsta marked my 8th application failure. It was excruciating as I had thoroughly prepared for the application. That notwithstanding, I entrusted everything to God.
I was on a mission in Douala (Cameroon) for my then company. The mission ran from the 18th to the 20th of August. Everything was going on smoothly. On the 19th of August 2021, one month after I had received my failed results from Kinsta, I got a mail asking me if I was still up to work for them. As I saw the mail, I asked myself if that was for real or a scam.
I responded that I would let them know, on Monday, the time for me to think about it together with my partner.
On Monday, I replied positively, and that was how I entered Kinsta. It was a Miracle from God as having gone through all these failures and turmoil, he had greater plans for me.
I am happy about these previous failures as having joined Kinsta, I believe this is a blessing from God. The folks are welcoming, and supportive. Kinsta is a family-friendly company and gives me enough time for my family and personal undertakings.
It has a fantastic culture, and we work remotely over the world
Two months after joining, I got married. Though I am still indebted, I gradually repay that.
Thank you, Jesus