Hmm, the whole experience was quite a rollercoaster. I had to go through five interviews and a massive assignment. The interviews themselves were fine, and the interviewers were friendly. However, at one point, they asked me to complete an excessively demanding assignment comprising about ten different tasks. It felt pretty awful to put in so much time and effort for free, especially since they hadn't even mentioned the salary, and it was for a specialist position.
Nevertheless, after I completed the case study, I received some compliments, and even the CEO added me on LinkedIn to stay in touch. We scheduled another interview, during which the CEO asked me to speak with the head of recruitment with some urgency (later that day). All of this led me to believe that I would get the job. I wonder if this was their intention.
I followed through with everything, but then they completely stopped responding to me. I was ghosted, simple as that. I felt extremely disrespected. It's a shame because everything had been positive up to that point (apart from the demanding assignment). We are all adults. It is normal not to advance in the hiring process, but please have the decency to inform people—especially after so much work.
Anyway, long story short, the process was excessively drawn out, the assignment was unnecessarily out of proportion, and the recruitment process ended up being extremely disrespectful. It's a shame because I initially had a great impression and would have been happy to work with them. I sincerely hope that they reconsider their approach to how they treat people.