After the second interview I had an entire email written out that I was going to send to their lead, but honestly, given that the app that they asked me to develop prior to the interview was well done, detailed, commented and modern, complete with a PR flow that me and one of their devs went through via GitHub, I felt that if they were willing to pass due to me obviously locking up on a Skype + Google-Doc shared whiteboard, and on the most basic of JavaScript skills (which were clearly elaborated upon within the project), then it wasn't the right fit anyways.
For those interviewers and candidates looking for a better solution than the "google doc shared whiteboard" - I suggest checking out a product I make: https://coderpad.io/
You can think of it as a much higher fidelity Stypi, Etherpad, Collabedit, etc, except that you can run the code in the browser as you write it. It really helps alleviate the choking sensation of being asked to write out an entire problem on a whiteboard without any of the modern affordances we've come to know and love.
Yeah, this actually did seem to lead to some confusion, which was the first bad sign. Google Docs obviously doesn't know how to format code, and the indentation was getting messy during the typing process leading me to have to break, think, fix indentation, resume thought, then answer to the questioner about my "preference for three spaces or two"... ? It was an obscene process that could have definitely been refined by your app and possibly led to a better outcome.
You wrote that? I love that site! I actually saw it for the first time last week when a company I was interviewing with used it as part of the interview process.
I loved how smooth and fluid it made the whole process, that they could switch between languages during the interview and the rewind functionality.
"I felt that if they were willing to pass due to me obviously locking up on a Skype + Google-Doc shared whiteboard, and on the most basic of JavaScript skills (which were clearly elaborated upon within the project)"
Or it could be a simple miscommunication, or they thought somebody else done the app given your performance on the interview. Reaching out and asking will cost you little compared to potential windfall.
Exactly. I mean, it would take a fairly skeptical person to think that you submitted someone else's code but maybe they just weren't willing to take the risk.
Either way, I think you've nothing to lose by sending that mail/picking up the phone. Regardless of the doubts the interviewer may have in you post-interview they'll know that everybody is prone to a bad day every once in a while.
