The position itself was very strange. They wanted someone to manage both test engineers and a team of technical writers and trainers. Luckily, I happen to have experience with both, so I applied.

The first round was with a company recruiter who spent most of the time talking about the different businesses within Wikimedia. When we talked comp, it turned out that the actual salary range for my area was not what they listed on the posting, but a number about 30% lower, even though I am in a moderate cost of living area. As expected from a non-profit, the benefits weren't great either.

The recruiter also told me the hiring process would take multiple rounds and last about two months, and that at least one round would be a take-home project. Even though none of these details were appealing, I decided to carry on because of my interest in Wikimedia itself.

Round two was scheduled three weeks later with the hiring manager. Similar to the screening round, they did the majority of the talking as they described how much of a mess the processes and codebase are in the company. Half of the few questions they asked me were simply them pausing to ask if the job still sounded interesting. As they talked, they seemed to be completely unexcited about their job. There were no questions about my leadership experience and only one about my technical experience.

When I asked about the role covering two very different teams, the answer I got was that they needed a manager for both but only had budget for one. At the end of the call, they told me to expect next steps in two weeks once they finished with the other candidates.

Three weeks later, I got a rejection email stating they wanted someone with more open-source experience. Even though I have open-source experience and they only asked about it once across both interviews.

Have you heard of Wikimedia?