I applied on LinkedIn and got an email from a recruiter 2 weeks later to setup an “interview,” but for a different role than I applied to. It took 1 week to schedule because I kept having to bump the emails, when she finally asked if we could communicate on WhatsApp instead. The “interview,” turned out to be a phone screen with someone at ByteDance’s HQ in China. There was a strong language barrier. I was asked a few inappropriate questions about my marital status, makeup of my family, and about my personal relocation to Australia. On the call we agreed to arrange a phone interview for later that week. I was not told who it would be with but was sent a Zoom link via email. The guy I spoke to in the US was super friendly, though didn’t have a lot more to share than just enthusiasm. I asked a lot of questions, as he didn’t seem to have any prepared. I followed up with the recruiter both via email and WhatsApp over the course of the next 3 weeks before she finally said I’d be moving on to the next round (when I asked how many rounds there were, she said 5!?) and I gave her my availability for the upcoming week. A few days later, I got a WhatsApp message at 1:30PM saying she’d scheduled me for an interview at 6:30PM that evening (a Friday). I told her that was too short notice for me to prepare and she said the interviewer was very busy so she didn’t know when he’d be free next….well her next offer was Christmas Eve! I politely removed myself from the interview process after that.

Interview was decent. Interviewer was honest and detailed about scope, Questions are the usual and case study on the spot. Recruiter was slow and not very responsive or helpful during the whole process.