The facade of professionalism. I was very intereseted in this rather unusual position, as it matched my experience very well - and the salary was quite handsome. I took part in all 4 stages of the interview process, which included 2 coding rounds - all for a glorified support position in Central Europe, so quite a bar to pass. That included one interview scheduled for evening hours so that the engineer from the US can participate - who didn't bother to actually show up to the interview. And I didn't really mind until, after all of the rounds, all I got back instead of the promised feedback was the most generic rejection e-mail sent by neither of the 2(!) recruiters I was in contact with. I also got two separate e-mails, however, asking for my feedback. So here goes: no respect for the candidate.

Even though I shared my available times, I was repeatedly pushed to take the interview in the evening hours in my timezone. This made me wonder if the company fully considers candidates’ time zones and, more importantly, if the job itself would involve a lot of evening work or meetings. I also asked about the expected working hours to get a better sense of the role, but unfortunately, I didn’t get a clear answer. It would be really helpful if this kind of information was shared upfront so candidates can understand what to expect and decide if it fits their lifestyle. The pressure to schedule interviews in the evenings felt a bit pushy and didn’t sit well with me. In the end, I decided to step back from the process because I had another offer that aligned better with my work-life balance priorities. I hope the company can be more upfront about working hours and offer more flexible interview scheduling in the future. It would make the experience much smoother and show respect for candidates’ time and commitments.