The interview process was a total of 3 weeks plus a few more days from the date the recruiter emailed me to set up a phone interview to the day I was told they were not moving forward with me. The first interview was an hour long with a recruiter who was very helpful. She was upfront with the salary and made sure that I know that there are no room for negotiation. I said I was okay with it and asked for their benefit package. They offer great benefits so I continued on with the process. It only took a day to schedule my next one with the contract specialist lead. She was very personable and someone I can see myself working with and learning from. It was an hour interview about learning the culture of Toptal as well as how their group function as a team. She asked me several questions about my background as well as what will software I've used in the past. Overall, she was great and I thought the interview went well. After that, it took about two weeks for the next round of interview which is in a form of a timed assessment. I knew that I didn't do so well. A few days came around and I followed up with the recruiter and she told me that they will not be moving forward with me as there are others who will be a better fit.

The interview process was thorough. Though it took several weeks, the actual interviews were very personable however they have others that are currently in the position interview you before the hiring manager interviews. Therefore I feel like some of the staff were a little weary since they are very protective of their work. Although towards the end of the interviews with the staff it became pleasant, I felt that they were a little cold because their mentality is that nobody can do the job as well or better than they can. I do feel like scheduling the interviews was a little lengthy. There are four interviews (at least for this position) and it took a week or longer for each person to become available for the interview. I got through the recruiter interview and the two employee interviews. I had mentioned to the recruiter what I was making as a Contract Specialist at my last company and wanted her to know that I was interested in discussing salary options (since Toptal was offering about 40% less) she said that she would discuss it with management. I didn't say that I woldn't take the position, just wanted to know more details and if they were open to negotiations. When it came time for the second employee interview she had asked me what my salary expectations were. I was confused why a fellow potential colleague would be asking me a question like that? I've never heard of anything like that before. We talked about it and the interview ended great. I didn't hear anything for a week so I followed up. I contacted the recruiter and she said that we would schedule an interview in the next week. When I followed up one last time a week later she said that they were not interested in me since they felt they could not meet my salary expectations and that was that. I never discussed it further with the recruiter or manager! I just wanted to know options and they completely dismissed me not to mention the fact that I felt it was completely unprofessional for a colleague to be asking me about salary expectations. These employees were both (separately) talking about how they work 14hr days at times, yet they want you to be OK with taking less and working much much more. TL;DR: Company was not open to not only negotiations of salary but even the discussion. Companies that are not open means they will not respect your needs in the future. Companies that are ignorant in believing that each and every person on the planet works in order to bring in an income to take care of themselves expect you to value their company more than you value yourself.