I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Fluidic Analytics in Jan 2021
Interview
I applied through a recruiter who said they were having real difficulties finding candidates with the particular skills.
I quickly got a first round interview, which was with the Head of Software. This wasn't much of an interview in the traditional sense. Tt was a Zoom call during which he spent most of the time explaining the company, the software they develop and the scientific details of the theory behind their product.
He didn't ask any technical questions - in fact, I think the only questions I were asked were ones that could have been answered by a cursory glance of my CV! Very basic things like have I had any experience before doing X. There was very little time for me to ask any questions either - I felt like I had to interrupt him to find an opportunity to. He was very friendly, but I don't think he conducted a good interview as I can't imagine he managed to find out much about me and I certainly didn't manage to find out much about what it would be like to work there.
I was verbally assured a second round interview and that he'd sort it out with HR afterwards and get back to me through my recruiter. After not hearing anything for a week, I checked in with the recruiter who told me "they're usually quite slow because they're so busy". Another week passed and I checked in again. My recruiter still had no idea what was going on. A couple of days later he broke the news that they'd gone with another candidate.
I'm not sure what it was that made them break their promise, or why they kept me waiting so long, but it felt very unprofessional.