Sadly, I had a disappointing experience with Elastic.
I applied online via LinkedIn. Within a few days, the role's recruiter reached out for a screening call. I booked that in and completed it the next day - that all went smoothly. The next round (meeting the hiring manager) was scheduled for the following week. However, the day before, I was told they had to reschedule, and I had to wait another week for this interview.
I finally had my hiring manager interview almost 2 weeks after the recruiter screen. This went really well, and I moved to the third round (take-home assessment) the next day. I completed my assessment on the same day, and sent it back to the recruiter.
This is where things took a negative turn. After a whole week, I had not heard anything from the recruiter, or anyone at Elastic - no feedback or anything. My candidate portal was also not updated - it still showed me only being in the second round, when I had completed the third. I messaged the recruiter to politely check-in, and heard nothing until the following week.
Once he responded, the recruiter told me he was currently out of office and would be unable to properly reply until the next week. I told him that was all good - I was happy to wait until he was back. But then, strangely, I suddenly received an email from him the next day letting me know I had progressed to the next round. I was really happy to have progressed, but weirdly, the email didn't mention my take-home task at all - instead, it thanked me for meeting with someone I hadn't ever met with, and it said that they wanted to move me to the fourth round. The person they said I'd met with was actually someone that I would meet in the fifth round (if I got there), hence why I hadn't met them before.
I was really confused. However, the person he said I would meet with for the fourth round was indeed the correct person, so I went ahead with booking that interview in, assuming the mention of this other interviewer was just an oversight. My fourth round interview went great, and I was told that the recruiter would reach out to schedule in the final, fifth round soon. This was on a Thursday.
By the following Tuesday, I'd heard nothing again. My candidate portal was also still not updated. I decided to send one, final check-in message via the candidate portal. In this message, I quickly clarified that I actually had not met with that person he mentioned in his previous email, but that I was told by my interviewers that I would meet with this person for the final interview (just in case there was confusion), and that I would be really excited to meet with him if I was successful in getting to the fifth round.
Within 20 minutes, I got a response. Not the one I expected though. The recruiter told me that suddenly, due to business strategy changes, the role was no longer being hired for. I assume the budget for the role was moved elsewhere in the business. I was so disappointed to hear this after investing almost 6 weeks of my time into interviewing, and getting so close to the end of the process.
Although I really loved talking to the team members I met here, the overall candidate experience was quite disappointing, and the way it ended was even more so. If you interview here, I would just be mindful not to get too invested or get your hopes up too much, even if your interviews go well. I really hope this doesn't happen to many other roles at Elastic.
