I applied for the job online, and having worked with Elasticsearch before with my previous employer, I was very excited to apply. The recruiting manager gave me a call, and after about 30 minutes of just reviewing my resume, he set up the next interview.

Within the next few days, I had been scheduled with two separate Skype interviews, each lasting about an hour, and they were very pleasant. I was mostly asked about my background, career goals, and personality traits. I was then invited to attend their user conference in SF, which I was very grateful and thrilled to attend and meet in person with my interviewees for the first time. I was shown around the conference and introduced to various members of the Elasticsearch team.

I was then scheduled with two members of the Marketing & Events team. One was a phone interview, about 20 minutes long, again going over my skills and background. When I finally arrived at the office for the in-person interview, it did seem rushed, and we went over the position, what they were looking for, and the trials and challenges in the position. I asked a lot of questions in regards to the company culture, and all in all, the interviews felt more like conversations with an old friend. I immediately met with the recruiting coordinator in person afterwards, and I had let him know that the assistant to the CEO had already reached out to me to schedule a video call interview. After discussing the whole process, he had let me know that once I was done with the video call with the CEO, they would extend the offer.

The next day, I was emailed by the recruiter with the incredibly brief response that they decided not to move forward with my application. I had emailed back, thanking him for all of their time and consideration, and if he had any feedback in regards to my interview process. I have received no response.

All in all, the interview process was very lengthy, but it was great meeting many members of the company, and for the most part, they made you feel very at home. This probably made me more comfortable and at ease. However, I was very discouraged that throughout the entire drawn-out process, I was dropped at the very last stretch of the process with no explanation if there was a better candidate or so on. I would have been very happy if they were more upfront with me, rather than pumping me up for almost a month about working for them and then completely disregarding me.

How do you feel about a highly distributed company? Many employees, and even managers, will be offsite.