Process was very unclear. It took more than 1 week to hear back from the recruiter on the status post-interview. It seemed like they were just keeping my application around while bringing in more competitive candidates. Nothing wrong with wanting to do more interviews, but be transparent and don’t waste the candidate’s time. If they are not that into you, they will ghost you.

The job description was riddled with typos, poor grammar, and repeated qualification requirements in the "Minimum Requirements" and in the "Bonus" sections. I mentioned this to the recruiter at the time of the phone screen. The phone screen with the recruiter was great - easy to schedule, on time, and well carried out. The phone interview with the hiring manager was great - scheduled quickly, on time, and well carried out. While the subject matter was interesting, the take home assessment was much too open ended. I wanted to do well and so spent about 20 hours (an entire weekend) on it. Specifically, one of the questions on the assignment was much too open ended and I could see doing a good job on it in 2-3 months not the suggested 5-6 hours. The feedback on the take home assessment was quick and the follow up interviews were scheduled promptly for about 2 weeks in the future. Given the 2 week gap in communication, I reached out 1 day before the interview to touch base a final time and make sure there were no changes. I also asked for any final tips on how to succeed. At that point I received a very detailed document on how to prepare for the on-site interview. This was very disappointing for several reasons. First, I should have received it much earlier (for example when the interview was scheduled) and not when I reached out 1 day before the interview to ask for suggestions on final prep. Secondly, I am certain the document was for the wrong role (perhaps a software engineering role) and did not really relate to the position I applied for (a data engineering role). I was therefore essentially not set up to succeed in the on-site interviews. To make matters worse, the location of the interview and the ENTIRE interview panel was changed the day before the interview, AND the recruiting coordinator was not there to greet me (though she found an alternate person) AND the recruiter was not there to debrief or walk me out (even though the onsite interview schedule for the day stated he would be) If I was to venture a guess, I would say that me touching base a day before the interview reminded the recruiting team about the on-site interviews at which point they realized they had the wrong location, the wrong interview panel, and the wrong preparation document. In summary, I was not set up to succeed in the on-site interviews. The coding questions that were asked of me were simpler than I had expected or prepared for which threw me off in the moment and then I admittedly let nervousness get the worst of me. Also, a Chromebook was provided for the coding challenges didn't make sense as most tech/coders/engineers are Mac users and so the constant fighting of the keyboard between the Command and Control keys for me made matters worse. I guess Chromebooks are less expensive? Some good, but overall a pretty bad experience.