Great chat with HR, chap was extremely personable, really sold the role, and I exceeded all of the requirements on the JD. Met with CTO a few days later who was the most rude and dismissive person I've ever met in my professional career. Apparently she was looking for someone with several years experience in the role already (this wasn't on the JD, and I was looking to move up in my career). She said "my time is important and I don't want to waste it talking to someone not qualified". Didn't even bother asking any questions to see if I had the experience if not the role. This was either a bizarre hazing ritual to see how I'd handle the challenge of being spoken down to, or shows a lazy person who couldn't be bothered to spend 30 seconds glancing at a resume before the interview was booked. In either scenario, not a person I'd want to work for. The role is still open several months later so I'm assuming no-one else wants to either.

HR reached out to schedule a screening call which went well. Got sent for a 2nd round interview. In what I'm sure is an attempt to remove bias, they don't allow the hiring manager to be part of the hiring process until the very end and I don't think they're part of the decision making. As a result, my 2nd round interview to evaluate leadership ability was given to another senior leader at the company. Having this part be an interchangeable person made it so this person didn't even know which interview I was on and they weren't able to give me a ton of insight into the actual position. Didn't love that. I felt this interview lacked structure and the interviewer asked somewhat random questions that were not prepared. Some were good, but some went down paths that weren't as relevant to the position. Overall, I still felt it went well and was wished "good luck on the rest of the process" which I thought was a good sign. Never heard another word from HelloFresh after that. HR didn't answer my email. Only found out I didn't get the job because the job posting disappeared.