I was contacted by their internal people acquisition team and had an initial 30-minute call. This was standard, light-touch, discussing my motivation for job hunting and previous experience. It felt very rote and pro-forma.

The next round was an hour-long call with an Engineering Lead. This was a very positive discussion, featuring a good mix of technical questions, discussion about my current role, career goals, and the structure of Checkout and some of its engineering teams.

Following that, I was given details of a technical challenge to complete and submit within a week. The recruiter emailed the task over, essentially setting off a one-week timer without checking if the timeframe was convenient. It wasn't, but I rearranged some personal plans (including birthday arrangements!) as best I could to allow enough time to complete and submit the task.

A week after submitting, I'd heard nothing, so I contacted the recruiter. He stated someone would be reviewing the submission that day and that he would get back to me by the end of the following day at the latest. Five days later, I still hadn't heard anything, so I sent another follow-up inquiry. This was not answered, and I've heard nothing further to date.

Since this occurred, I've read blogs discussing why tech companies often choose not to follow up with unsuccessful candidates. Suggested reasons range from it simply being a waste of their time to it being a strategy to avoid potential legal ramifications by disclosing hiring reasons or criteria.

Personally, I feel there's no real excuse for not providing even a courtesy acknowledgment, such as, "Sorry, we've decided not to continue with your application." This is especially true after asking applicants to prepare a week's worth of work with zero notice. It's rude, presumptuous, and dismissive. It also precludes me from wanting to apply to this company in the future, even if I might be a better fit then. I not only have no idea about areas for improvement due to the lack of feedback, but I also don't respect the way the company treats applicants, and now have a negative opinion of them. This was doubly irritating as I had specifically asked the Engineering Lead if they provided feedback to all candidates, and he had confirmed they do.

It's a shame, as the company sounds like it has a good work culture, great opportunities for career development, an interesting tech stack, and so on. My negative opinion is largely directed at the recruitment team and process, as I found my experience speaking with the Engineering Lead very positive.

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