First I was sent an email asking me to describe my technical experience, successes, failures, interests, availability, and a few technical questions. Then I had a phone technical interview where I was asked a lot of general technical questions (describe how the internet works... describe agile programming practices) then a few coding questions.
I was asked to come on site the following week. They said they were on a tight schedule and wanted all on site interviews done in the next week. Because I'm not from New York this took some planning, however the recruiter(s) didn't respond until the day before the interview... So I skipped school, jumped on to New York, taxied to Brooklyn, interviewed, and immediately came all the way back (4-5 hour trip each way).
There were four interviews. The first woman didn't really have any questions for me. She asked what teams (from a list) I would be most interested in, and I told her and explained why. Then she just kind of sat there spinning in her chair, looking at the ground, checking the time on her phone. I started asking her questions because I had no idea what she wanted, but she was really shy so it was very difficult to click. She clearly didn't want to be interviewing.
Then the next two interviewers asked me coding/whiteboard questions. Neither interview was tricky for me, but I enjoyed them a lot. I certainly answered everything correctly and got positive responses from both men. The fourth and last interview was also non technical and about what teams might be right for me. I really liked the guy and we talked the entire hour about Etsy, the industry, what to look for in entry jobs, etc. He said I would be a great fit there, and overall it seemed like a good day.
After the interviews, the recruiter gave me a tour of the place and then promised to email me the following Wednesday. He said if I hadn't heard by then to email him.
Well Wednesday came and went. Friday came and went and I sent the recruiter an email. Then another week passed. I emailed the scheduling recruiter as well to see what was up.... no responses from anyone I emailed. Over a month went by before I finally got an email from the recruiter saying that they just couldn't decide who to hire. They had a lot of good candidates and not enough positions, so they needed more time to choose fairly (what happened to their strict timeline?). He said he'd have an answer in a week.
Well that was two months ago and I still haven't gotten a response. I missed school to interview with them, spent 8+ hours traveling to be there... and I never even got an email.
I've never done an on site interview with a company and not at least gotten a phone call, whether the news was good or bad. I'm kind of stunned that Etsy handles their applicants this way. A simple "thanks for applying but..." email goes a long way.