The entire interview process was excessively long and chaotic. Beyond the 8-week, 6+ round timeline, the structure of the interviews themselves was flawed and raised several red flags.

1. Signs of Internal Misalignment: It felt like the engineering team and new leadership had different hiring criteria. This was evidenced by being asked to do an "emergency" coding round after what I was told was the final VP interview. Furthermore, there was a disproportionate focus on behavioral questions about resolving internal conflicts between teams and leadership. The heavy emphasis on this topic suggested that significant internal friction may be part of the daily work environment.

2. Superficial Technical Evaluation: The technical rounds were not well-designed to assess a candidate's actual experience or depth of knowledge. There was no round dedicated to a deep dive on my past projects, which is a standard practice for evaluating senior talent. One technical discussion felt more like a "keyword explanation" quiz than a substantive conversation, as the interviewer lacked the follow-up questions needed to explore complex topics. The process seemed to miss the forest for the trees, failing to gauge real-world problem-solving skills.

3. Disrespectful Candidate Experience (Ghosting): After being explicitly encouraged to re-apply for future roles, I was contacted by a new recruiter for a relevant position. However, after I replied to their initial email providing context on my extensive interview history, I was completely ghosted. This lack of follow-up is unprofessional and shows a disregard for the significant time and effort candidates invest in the process.

Advice to Management:

1. Align on a Candidate Profile Internally First: Before posting a job, ensure all stakeholders agree on the required skills and experience. A heavy focus on conflict resolution in interviews might be a sign that you need to resolve internal issues, rather than hire someone to fix them.

2. Redesign Your Technical Interviews: Move beyond keyword definitions. Incorporate practical project deep-dives and problem-solving sessions that allow experienced candidates to demonstrate their skills. A well-designed technical screen should be a two-way conversation that assesses depth, not just a verbal quiz.

3. Improve Internal Candidate Management: Your Applicant Tracking System should provide recruiters with a candidate's full history. Ghosting any candidate is bad practice; ghosting one you've already put through 6+ rounds and encouraged to re-apply is a serious flaw in your process that damages your employer brand.

How do you handle conflicts with managers and team members?