I applied online. The process took 1 week.

I had a telephonic interview for a Staff Software Engineer role in late 2023. It quickly became clear they were not actually trying to conduct a technical interview.

Instead of discussing distributed systems or architecture, the interviewer focused on lazily interrogating my current employment status, repeatedly pressing me on whether I was "up for promotion." This question exposed a complete ignorance of senior engineering tracks. At the Staff level, promotion is not mandatory—focusing on high-leverage technical execution is often far more valuable than taking on administrative overhead. Conflating internal corporate promotion cycles with technical competence showed a fundamental lack of understanding of senior talent.

Furthermore, the logical fallacy of this question is glaring: if a Staff Engineer were up for a promotion, they would be strategically and financially invested in their current company and wouldn't be taking phone screens. When I gave a straightforward answer that I was simply looking to change tech stacks, the interviewer replied with a patronizing "thank you for your honesty," as if I had admitted a flaw.

It became obvious that this was a marketing exercise disguised as an interview. The company appears to deliberately attempt to "neg" candidates to lower their confidence and artificially project an aura of exclusivity. In reality, it felt like shadow interviewing to meet internal HR goals, no different from generic corporate quota-driven processes. Senior engineers seeking serious architectural rigor should be highly wary.

Are you currently up for promotion at your current employer?