Perk Software Engineer interview experience

The conversations felt productive enough that I made plans based on the remote promise, and I was even in the mindset of preparing for my start date.

A few days before I was scheduled to begin, HR contacted me with a major change: on-site work was actually mandatory, not optional. I was stunned because the risk I took—leaving my previous job—had been tied to the earlier remote arrangement. With small children, I couldn’t absorb that kind of uncertainty.

I ended up having to unwind the plan and return under different conditions. The rejection wasn’t framed as a skills mismatch at all—it was