I went through a process with them, and it was quite interesting, though not in a positive way.
Initially, everything felt fairly standard: an introductory call with the recruiter, followed by a technical challenge that I completed and submitted. I was then invited to their offices in Lisbon to present it. That’s where the experience started to shift.
During the on-site interview, which included the hiring manager (who is also the Managing Director of the Lisbon office), the recruiter, and another stakeholder, the dynamic was heavily dominated by the hiring manager. Early on, he stated that he did not believe the performance metrics on my CV. I offered to walk him through them and provide context, but that opportunity was dismissed.
He then asked whether I felt comfortable making architectural or technology decisions. I explained that, while I’m not an engineer and believe those decisions should ultimately be owned by senior engineers as a best practice, I’m very comfortable understanding trade-offs, contributing to discussions, and documenting decisions. This response was met with visible disapproval.
Later, when asked which skill I was most proud of, I highlighted being strongly data-driven — I focus on grounding decisions and business cases in measurable insights. His response was that he prefers people with an entrepreneurial mindset, without really engaging with the substance of my answer.
A few days later, I was declined. In all honesty, I had already decided I would not move forward even if I had received an offer. When I requested brief feedback — just a couple of bullet points — they declined to provide any.
Overall, the experience gave me the impression of a challenging work environment: highly hierarchical, with limited openness to dialogue, and not fully aligned with product or engineering best practices.
