I was first contacted by a recruitment firm to assess my suitability for the application process at Darktrace. After two rounds with the recruiters, I had my first round with a Darktrace talent acquisition employee, which went well. A few days later, I had my second round with a business development executive. She was very polite but not natural, and I sensed from the beginning that she had no sympathy for me. I could feel her forced politeness and rejection. At the end of the conversation, I asked what the next steps were, and she said she would like to invite me for a third and final round the following day, where I would have to do a roleplay, and then they would make a decision. I prepared for the roleplay and was ready the next morning. However, then came the message that the interview could not take place because a "private emergency" had occurred with the lady, and therefore, the interview had to be postponed. Then Darktrace did not send any further messages for the entire week, and when I asked, they said they could not give me a new appointment yet, but they definitely wanted to continue with my application process in the following week, and they hoped I would not already have signed somewhere else by then. Okay, that sounded promising. Then, the following week, a time slot was arranged for Tuesday morning, 7 days after the original appointment. Tuesday morning, 2 hours before the appointment, I received a message that the appointment had to be cancelled because they had decided not to continue with me. All in all, a really bad situation and absolutely disrespectful. I would have expected a more professional behavior from a company of this size, which is also one of the market leaders in their segment, and not what was pulled off here, as this was really beneath contempt. As I was highly qualified for the position, I must conclude that the decision in this case was not made based on qualifications but rather due to personal feelings of a woman whose place in a modern professional environment should be reconsidered. Beware, overall a very bad, dishonest and disrespectful way of treating people.

Pros: HR interviewer was upfront about average salary range of existing ISRs. Cons: HR interviewer gives off an immensely snobbish attitude, seems like he's there more to disqualify potential candidates than to assess their fit. Also happened to speak to an external recruiter that Darktrace is partnered with - learned that the same HR interviewer has a less than positive reputation within the industry.