Oh boy, do I have feedback for you. Your hiring process is an absolute joke, and your hiring manager interview had nothing to do with the actual job posted or discussed. Being dismissed for something irrelevant like not having specific team lead experience, when the position was clearly for a backend engineer, is baffling. Let me remind you of what your own job description says:
“As a part of the team, you’ll be taking part in the continuous development of the products that are in the care of your team.”
“Day to day, this means developing new user stories, fixing bugs, creating & reviewing pull requests, documenting your work (code comments, readme, confluence,..), performing research, making suggestions for product improvements, and communicating clearly about your progress.”
“Together with your colleagues, you’ll be making sure the product meets all functional and non-functional requirements.”
“As an engineer, you understand that producing clean, readable, and testable code is always a priority.”
None of this even hints at needing team lead experience, so what exactly are you looking for? If you're hiring for a team lead role, then describe it as such. Otherwise, stop wasting people’s time by judging them on irrelevant criteria.
Your process not only misleads candidates but also encourages them to lie or overinflate their experience to meet expectations you’re not even honest about. And if you really want candidates with team lead experience for a backend position, then prepare to pay top dollar for it, because that level of expertise doesn’t come cheap.
Long story short, this was an awful, frustrating experience and a complete waste of time. Do better.
