It was a well-organized process with a unique spin: a take-home assignment to cover some interesting problems from your past experience. Originally I was hesitant to reply due to significant time investment just to get to the phone screen round. I actually felt that in the end it saved quite a lot of time for the company and for the candidate as I didn't need to cover my story verbally and during the phone screen we just went deeper into some aspects of the past experience. I didn't feel that I need to explain a lot and phone screeners came prepared.

First, there is the HR screen and then a homework assignment that focuses on a challenging project you led which you then go over with a hiring manager. Those steps were interesting and fun, and pretty straightforward. Then comes the interview loop which was the absolutely worst experience I’ve had in interviewing during my career. They use a behavioral interviewing method which is pretty standard, but it’s their execution that’s appalling. In my case I spoke to two interviewers that read questions off of a list, and all these had a heavy negative spin...and the interviewers appeared to be disinterested or miffed they had to speak to me. Awkward, uncomfortable, but very revealing. Then came the session with a senior hiring manager who just decided not to show up, which made me sit on the video call waiting for 45 minutes. Again, extremely revealing. At that point my goal was to go through the rest of the loop and then politely decline any further discussions...a big mistake, because it actually got worse. Same exact pattern. Disinterested, detached interviewer asking negative spin questions that were from a list. Awful. At this point not revealing, just repetitive. I got to the last interview and this interviewer was obviously not thrilled to have to talk to me, seemed like a real chore to him, and I just couldn’t continue. Explained to him that I wanted to stop the process because it was just such a disappointing experience, whereupon he brought a recruiter online and she heard some of my feedback...and laughed about it. Yes, laughed. Respect, professionalism...not so much, no. One click and it was thankfully over. The net of all this was a lot of wasted effort and a horrible experience on my part, but others have had exactly the opposite experience so I think it really depends on if they are truly interested in you or if you’re just fodder for interview practice. The no-show was a clear sign they weren’t serious, so I wished they had just cancelled and I could have avoided the experience and the interviewers who very obviously did not want to be there could have done something else. The values they speak of are clearly only performative with no substance, and their conduct of the interview proved it beyond any doubt. They’re trying to look progressive and in-step with the majority of startups in their value statement, but it’s only marketing copy. In the end I am very glad I won’t be working here...the interviewers sounded like they were very unhappy and that not the kind of environment I was looking for. The job I accepted (I delayed accepting that job to consider this roll...really stupid on my part) is a complete opposite of what I saw here...happy motivated people engaged in a effort they believe in within a truly supportive environment.