I was contacted by a developer from the company for an upcoming position of Tech Lead/Manager.
In total I had 2 coding, 2 system design, 1 interview with hiring manager, 2 interviews with 2 different VPs, every interview is at least one hour. Plus had four 30 mins sessions with two different recruiters from the company, plus talked twice with the dev who initially contacted me.
Pros:
- Process is well coordinated and all steps are explained ahead of time.
- Technical problems are relatively interesting and are more or less relevant.
Cons:
- I do a lot of interviews and I do not think I ever had to go such an excessive process. Just time spent during various interviews and discussions took 9+ hours, plus at least double this time for preparation.
I have passed all the tech interviews well, as I was given feedback that they are "strongly incline to move forward", after which I had interviews with the 2 VPs. I assume that I have screwed up one or both of those.
I do not blame the company for not hiring me, in the end it is their decision and I respect it. What I prefer is at least some feedback and clear communication after they have made the decision.
It is sociopath behaviour that most company engage into. They are super nice to you and interested, want your complete engagement and quick reaction, ask for so much of your personal time. Then if you do not fit, you do not exist anymore, this is disgusting. How hard it is to spend 10 minutes to summarize your conclusion and send it to the candidate? In the end, even for a selfish reason to keep good interview reviews...
In the end the recruiter sent 2 sentences email that I have to read twice to understand that I will not be hired, as it was implied and not directly stated. Even though he convinced me that I will be hired after such a good tech interview.
All in all, I am thankful to all the people I have talked to, but very frustrated for wasting around 30 hours of my life to hear that they decided to "go with internal transfer" or something like that (if it is true, this is just mad).