- Call with recruiter (30 mins) where standard product questions/scenarios were asked. Nothing difficult here at all.
- Call with Hiring Manager, again high-level situational questions, more to validate cultural fit as well
- Call with two potential product colleagues, more situational-type questions
- Case study (supposedly final step), 1-hour presentation to the product team. Not hard.
- Newly introduced last-minute interview with another product person I had never been intro'd to throughout the process, but they had attended my case study.
Now that I've described the interview process, it's time to share my thoughts. At the beginning of this whole thing, I thought the way they handled the recruitment process was highly professional. Had really good interactions with everyone, quick response times and setting up next steps. I even had the hiring manager reach out to me to help prep me for the case study which signalled to me that I was "their guy".
I spent a significant amount of effort prepping for the case study. I even took a few days off work to accommodate the prep time and my actual case study presentation. I was blindsided after the case study because that was supposed to be the final step, but the recruiter wanted to schedule a new final interview the very next day with someone I had only met during my case study presentation.
This final interview lasted 30 mins and I thought it went very well, especially considering they gave me an additional 10-15 mins to ask questions. Then everything changed... This interview took place on a Thursday afternoon, heard nothing on Friday. Monday crickets as well, and I followed up. By Tuesday morning, I received a GENERIC rejection message from the recruiter saying they were moving forward with other candidates at this time - candidateS! After 5 interviews...
Now look, I genuinely have no problem with rejection, it doesn't feel great but I moved on and secured a new role shortly after. What I didn't appreciate is receiving a generic rejection after investing so much time & effort. I additionally really didn't appreciate that when I followed-up asking for a little more then that, I got ghosted. Not a great look.