I applied online and got a response next day with an invitation for a short call with a recruiter. The atmosphere was very informal. The recruiter asked about my age which was inappropriate and confusing. After that I proceeded with a soft skills interview (one hour duration call). Overall questions during both calls were blurry and chaotic. I didn't hear enough information about position, employer expectations and details about a team. I got refusal before being asked to showcase my technical skills. During a feedback call I received only explanation why I am not a good fit for the role and the company without mentioning any positive signals and sides. My overall impression is that the hiring team doesn't care about supporting candidates during interview process and bothers only about checking checkboxes from their instructions. P.S. I had a feeling that the recruiter wanted to end a feedback call as soon as possible after telling me about the refusal without giving some space to breath, think and analyze my performance.

After submitting my online application, I received an invitation for a first interview within just two hours. During the interview, the recruiter initially seemed friendly, but I became confused when he started asking irrelevant questions about my age. He also asked about my qualifications, to which I explained that I am self-taught and only have a diploma. He proceeded to ask more questions, and then finally asked about my salary expectations. After I gave my answer, he loudly exclaimed that my expectations were too high, and proposed a lower salary than what is typically offered to a developer in the Netherlands. The recruiter then told me that, due to my lack of a university degree, it would not be possible for me to obtain a working visa, and therefore they could not move forward with my application. It was apparent to me that they were looking for younger candidates who could be hired for lower salaries.