HR's fast response to application explained entire process: 1. Screener (identity verification, salary expectations check) 2. Tech test #1 (data structures and algorithms) 3. Tech test #2 (systems design and architecture) 4. Line manager interview 5. Department manager interview 6. Offer

Thorough is how Firstup described their interview process. Ridiculous is what I would say. It started with a one hour zoom call with their internal HR rep who told me a certain salary band for the role which piqued my interest. The next step was to wait 2 weeks to attend a recruitment event at their office, which started at 4pm so I was forced to use my annual leave to take a half day to attend. The event was okay, mostly the company bigging themselves up. After that I was sent a small multiple choice coding test to basically verify I knew the languages that I claimed to know on my CV, only 6 questions. Next was a zoom call with the site lead/hiring manager which lasted an hour and was sort of a culture fit interview. I promptly responded to the email inviting me to this but it was never arranged and I had to nudge them on the day to rearrange it for that evening. In the same email I asked how lengthy the interview process would be and received no answer. After that was another one hour zoom call, this time a technical interview, lots of questions about my experience and some technical questions then an exercise using Coderpad to solve a problem. Following that I received an email informing me that the next phase of this arduous process was a day consisting of 3 more zoom calls, totally 2.5 hours. One on architecture, one on problem solving and the final one was another culture fit call with another manager. After all of this the HR rep arranges a quick catch up with me via zoom, granted this was a month after our initial chat. We discuss salary expectations and possible starting dates. At this point the advertised salary band has dropped with the upper limit now being the old lower limit. I said my expectations were still the same as when we first spoke. Another brief zoom call and I am told that they would like to make me an offer, at the upper limit of the revised salary band, this was well below my salary expectations and I declined. I feel like I was misled, the position was misrepresented, and if I knew what the salary band actually was from the start I would have never even gone to the recruitment event, let alone spent the equivalent of a full working day in interviews.