This interview process has 7 stages. I was strung along as far as the 6th interview.

Initial call with recruiter:

• Asks very generic questions, while also not knowing, or perhaps not being competent on giving details about the company and its perks.
• I don't think it mattered what I said here; I was moving onto the next round.

Talk with hiring manager:

• Talked me briefly through the role, and said he liked the look of my CV, which I didn't have to talk about much.
• I was free to ask questions, which is always important.
• A small red flag here was they kept struggling to explain ETL because they were actually doing it more like ELT. A bizarre two minutes here, just nodding my head.
• It was summed up by explaining what the following interviews were going to be and that it could all be done "within a week or two." I didn't believe it, and the actual experience totaled up to one of the worst interviews a candidate can be put through.

Following the interview with the manager, there was a long delay. By the end of the week, I emailed the recruiter explaining that another interview needed to be scheduled. Funnily enough, she promptly sent two calendar invites for two technical rounds.

DevOps and Scripting simulation: These were straightforward, and the two engineers were really easy to interview with. Interviewing with them rekindled my interest in seriously considering Fivetran.

Focused interview with Staff Engineer and hiring manager (shadowing): After probing the recruiter again, five weeks later, the recruiter scheduled an interview focused on my CV with a staff engineer. The interviewer asked scenarios based on the technologies I have experience with and other hypothetical scenarios to cover their broad tech range. This was again a great positive interview experience with an engineer. They're clearly passionate and competent in their roles and really try to find the right candidate for their tech stack. This was on a Monday. I was told the interview process could be wrapped up during that week again. Remaining interviews were a cultural interview and an interview with the director. I considered it low risk to continue with the remaining two.

During the previous interview, I had a calendar invite for the next round, which was swiftly cancelled with no communication as to why. I emailed the next day to understand the reasoning, and the recruiter explained it was hard to get a time for the interview, so she asked for my further availability. I sent my availability promptly, but it was met with radio silence until the following week.

A new week brought a new sense of wonder at what Fivetran would throw at me this time. The recruiter scheduled a "sync" phone call with me. I had a few thoughts on what this meant, so I checked their careers page, and sure enough, the role had been taken down. The recruiter then explained on the phone they were putting the hiring for Senior SRE on hold until Q3. I just laughed and gave my candid thoughts over the phone. I feel I should have been told ASAP, as this should not be an overnight decision. If it was, it's a serious red flag for this company. My time was completely wasted and disrespected. I'm not going to blame the recruiter for everything; it definitely comes from management drip-feeding information.

My summation: I had a gut feeling during my initial meeting with the manager, and it unfortunately turned out to be right. The engineers I met kept me interested. I was lied to/misled twice, which makes one wonder what expectation the manager sets for projects. The recruiter is either out of her depth with interviewees or just incompetent at getting the information for the role. They have no empathy for candidates, so I don't believe they will automatically have empathy for you as an IC. This company should be considered a strong red flag for anyone.

If you still apply for any engineer role, really question the senior management to see if they've matured and can give clearer answers to org structure. Also, request an interview with HR, as this was initially overlooked for me. Also, read the recent reviews from the sales department.

Asked me questions on cloud providers, k8s, and monitoring.