The process started off really well, and in a very human way. They didn’t expect a polished portfolio upfront, which was such a refreshing thing to hear. I had the first call right away with the hiring manager, followed by a second call with both the hiring manager and a product designer from the team, where I presented a case study. They were genuinely curious about my work, and that round went quite well. Then came the third round, which was a strange one. They gave me access to their sandbox environment less than 48 hours before the meeting and said we’d have a “casual” conversation about my observations. But there was nothing casual about it. They dove deep into their own product, something I’d only seen for less than a day. They started asking for solutions to real problems they were facing. It felt like they were trying to harvest free ideas. The session went horribly. I was honest with them and said, “This conversation isn’t going anywhere. I haven’t studied your product well enough to give you meaningful solutions.” But it didn’t end there. They then sent me a task! Again, asking me to design a solution to a real issue in their product. I couldn’t help but wonder: how is this even ethical? That was the final round I had with them. Overall, they were nice people. But the interview process felt immature, like they were still figuring out how to run proper interviews.