I had the pleasure of interviewing with Palo Alto Networks a few days ago, and it was hands-down one of the best interview experiences I've ever had. The whole team, including the Hiring Manager and recruiter, were thorough professionals. They kept the process open and transparent throughout the entire time.

I want to give a special shout-out to the recruiter on my interview loops, Susan Merrow. She was so reliable, consistent, and kept things honest and practical. In this day and age of companies ghosting candidates and recruiters behaving like salespeople, with an entire culture of treating applicants like cattle, Susan's thorough professionalism stood out. I asked for a quick process turnaround, which she promptly delivered on. I asked for timelines, and she outlined the runway and kept to it.

Eventually, I did not get the role, and though I'm experienced, I'm not immune to disappointment and feeling like a failure. When I asked for feedback on how I could improve myself, Susan's thoughtful feedback helped me get a much-needed confidence boost. Thank you, Susan, for being such a gem. Any team, company, or candidate that gets to work with you is lucky.

I wrote a Java program on recursive list parsing.