I applied directly and shortly received a fairly long take home SQL test, covering beginner to intermediate problems.
After submitting the test, I was progressed to a first stage interview. This was mostly competency with a little mix of technical questions.
I passed the first stage interview and progressed to the second stage which was a technical interview. Before this, I was emailed a Google form to submit my current salary and salary expectations for the role. There was no discussion regarding salary throughout the entire interview process other than the Google form. This needed to be submitted before the second interview.
The second interview was mostly discussing my past projects, why I took particular approaches and thoughts on additional or alternative methods. At this point, I was also asked how I felt about meeting with clients, with the role now being made more client-facing (though this was not in the original advertisement). I expressed my interest and gave relevant experience to back it.
I received strong feedback on the second interview and was progressed to a final stage interview with the CEO.
The final stage interview with the CEO was essentially a get to know you interview. The CEO was interested in my career path and ambition. He discussed how the company operates and the challenges going ahead. At the end of the interview, he mentioned there would be three outcomes:
1) I would not be offered the position
2) I would be offered the position
3) I may be offered the position at a later date, say months down the line depending on the needs of the company.
Throughout the process, they was generally quick to follow up as well as commicate with me. However, after a few days passed from the final interview, I emailed to find out when I might hear back but this was ignored.
The following week, I received a rejection email with very little feedback - the main reason for rejection was my salary expectations and there was no negotiation of any sort.
The company were fully aware of my salary expectations but still progressed me through 2 interviews after submitting my salary expectations through their Google form.
After following up with them, I was given further reasons for my rejection. 1) Salary expectations - apparently this is something they don't discuss until the very end of the interview process 2) my skills were not on par with other candidates, but enough to progress me through the whole interview process 3) my focus was more on engineering rather than client-facing, despite mentioning my interest in this and they still progressed me to the final interview.
It's understandable that companies has to recruit according to their needs and can't hire everyone but of all companies I have applied to, this company stands out as one of the most disrespectful of my time (the process was about 1 month and 1 week long) and efforts.
A lot of companies will unfortunately try to low-ball their candidates but the Google form shows they really don't care. It is fair for both parties to discuss compensation early on so that neither waste each other's time, but this company is just happy to have a pool of candidates to choose from.
