I went through five interviews — starting with the recruiter, then the hiring manager (twice), the CRO, and finally the CEO. There was also a take-home assignment that took several hours to complete. The recruiter and hiring manager conversations went really well and gave me the impression that I was a strong fit for the role. Things shifted a bit when I met with the CRO — the interview felt rushed since he mentioned he only had 20 minutes of our scheduled 30. He asked about my background, but it wasn’t totally clear if he was evaluating me for the same position. Ironically, I later found out that he actually liked my background a lot and thought I could be a good fit. The final interview was with the CEO. We started about 20 minutes late for a 30-minute slot, which I understood — CEOs are busy. During our chat, he mentioned that he didn’t really see my sales background as a match for what they needed but said he’d consider bringing me on at a lower title and pay to “prove myself” since it was a meritocratic, high-intensity sales culture — almost “Wolf of Wall Street” style. After that conversation, I never heard back from anyone on the team. No follow-up, no closure. It was disappointing given the amount of time and effort that went into the process. Overall, it would’ve been nice to have better communication and alignment earlier on — especially if the CEO already had a different idea of what they were looking for.