The initial step was a take-home assignment. I spent approximately 15 hours on it, ensuring I wrote well-designed code and tested thoroughly. It was a great take-home challenge. I felt great; the take-home was exciting and challenging, allowing for creativity and providing just the right amount of information to be creative about my implementation.

Next, I had a Hiring Manager screen. The recruiter described it as an opportunity to learn about the role and my background. Unfortunately, the interviewer was 10 minutes late to the 30-minute call, which was a less-than-ideal start. They did not offer to reschedule, even though they knew the interview would be cut short, adding to the list of issues.

The interview followed the usual process of sharing information about myself and my past experiences. However, it felt as though the interviewer was not interested at all. They did not engage with any of my responses, appearing to read from a script without deviating. When it was their turn to share information about the role, they did so in a rather unexciting manner. My thought was, "This is the opportunity to sell me on the company and the position," but that was another missed opportunity.

At the end of the interview (which was cut short by 2-3 minutes because they needed to leave, hopefully the last issue?), they asked one "open-ended question" without providing any expectations and one technical concept. The questions seemed out of place given the limited time remaining (less than 5 minutes). The open-ended question, likely intended to test my thinking process, was asked abruptly, without guidance or any indication of what they were looking for. It's puzzling to ask a question that requires a thorough answer in under 5 minutes without providing any context.

The "cherry on top" was that at no point did they ask about the project I spent 15 hours working on. To me, this felt disrespectful and a waste of my time. Either they use the take-home to weed out candidates who don't truly care about the company, or they simply don't value the project itself. If I had known this, I would not have dedicated so many hours to it.

I feel that if the intention was to test my thought process in 5 minutes (which is what the "technical" portion lasted), a better approach would have been to utilize the project I had spent multiple hours on. I had prepared extensively before the call, documenting every decision made on the project, understanding the bigger picture, and even considering how the project could benefit the company.

Overall, it felt like a waste of my time with a company that does not appreciate the time I invested in the take-home challenge and with an interviewer who did not seem genuinely interested in conducting an interview.

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