[MattGaiser]

This is what Shopify has to say about the Life Story:

> For the Life Story, you can expect an informal 60-minute conversation via video with a Recruiter from our team. Interviews at Shopify are two-sided conversations. We are genuinely interested in getting to know you and we want you to get to know us, too.

It seemed so out of the blue to be asked the typical questions contract recruiters ask about programming languages and years of experience in those languages.

[sequoia]

Yeah this sort of language was what threw me off. It explicitly states that they want to "get to know you" in a way that, presumably, extends beyond "how many years JavaScript experience."

I actually remember thinking "perhaps figuring out that the question they asked is not the question they actually want answered is the test. Figuring out that a stakeholder wants something very different than what they initially ask for is a very important skill for developers." If so, good on shopify recruiters! They're playing 3D chess.