I interviewed for two engineering manager positions at HashiCorp. The recruiter I talked to was very open about the position salary range and benefits, which I found helpful. After I talked to the recruiter, though, the position I applied for was no longer available. She said if she found another position for me, she would reach back out, since she thought I matched their core values very well.

Two months later, she contacted me again, and I restarted the interview process for another position. Since I signed an NDA for the second interview, I won't get into many of the details. The first-round interview with the senior engineering manager focused on cultural fit. The second round focused on typical interview questions from a question bank asked by peers.

While I was given plenty of time to ask my own questions during each interview (which I considered a positive), I was also asked one question in particular, three times, from three different interviewers (on the same day). The second-round interview effort didn't seem to be well thought out, with lots of repeat questions, and didn't cover a significant portion of my technical and management experience.

In the end, I was surprised it took the recruiter so long to get back to me and was even more shocked not to have received an offer, given that I had more experience than any of the engineering managers who interviewed me. It's really unclear to me what they're actually looking for in an engineering manager, and I'm not convinced they know either.