I wish I had read the interview feedback before going through one.

I was approached by Twilio for a Principal Role in their engineering team, and I was so happy about it. The money they were proposing was better than the likes of FAANG, and it was a very senior and prestigious role.

Following a recruiter call, I went through two initial phone interviews with prospective peers. The feedback was awesome.

Next were four calls with different people, including a bar-raiser, to verify that I aligned with their "magic values."

Last was a system design study with a panel, during which the hiring manager said, "in a few days you will have a final answer." I found this odd, given they claimed to still be going through candidates.

A week later, I received the dreaded call from the recruiter saying, "it was very close and came down to the panel interview, sorry, but another candidate got the job."

I didn't think much of it initially. But a month later, I checked LinkedIn and found the candidate of choice who got the job. Coincidentally, he was a colleague of two people on the panel (including the hiring manager) at two previous companies.

That was cruel. Two weeks of preparation studying the company and its values, preparing for the system design case study, and at the end, a sham process to justify hiring someone else they wanted? Shame on you, Twilio, shame on you!

All kinds, and they make you sign an NDA so you keep your mouth shut afterwards.