I applied through the company website and the interview process was quite smooth overall.
First interview was an online meeting with talent acquisition and it was mostly typical HR questions (why do you want to work here, why are you leaving your current company, salary, etc) and he gave me useful information about the company and its culture, next I had an online meeting with the head of engineering which was more focused on my experience in teams and different work scenarios and a bit system design.
the next step was an on-site technical interview, they asked me to present some code I had written before to two engineers who were very friendly and professional. They asked real-world technical questions and some more in-depth questions about my technical skills.
Last round was an on-site meeting with the CTO which was more about personal attitude, teamwork, and company culture, they also asked me to complete a personality test called Facet5 which took about 30 minutes.
Overall, my experience with the people and the conversations was positive h owever I was disappointed with the final offer, the salary was €20K lower than the amount I had clearly mentioned in the first meeting with talent acquisition, I remember at that time he told me my expectation was above their budget and said he would check with the team and managers before continuing the process so I was surprised when the final offer came in much lower. at first I thought it might be a mistake but after checking they confirmed that this was what they could offer and that it was already at the top of their budget.
of course every company has its own budget and that is understandable however since we had already discussed this in the first meeting I think it was unprofessional to continue the whole process if they knew they could not get close to my expected salary. I would also have understood if they had offered a lower level or explained that my experience matched a different position but offering the same level and role with a salary €20K below the discussed expectation did not feel fair or respectful of everyone’s time.