The recruiter was kind, informative, and prepared me well for the process. The process consisted of 4 steps: a 30-minute phone screen, a 45-minute interview with the hiring manager, a 3-hour onsite interview (consisting of a 45-minute portfolio presentation and four 30-minute 1:1 interviews with team members), and a final executive interview. I completed 3/4 steps and was scheduled for my executive interview after receiving positive feedback from my onsite. They called the business day before it was supposed to happen and said that they didn't think my visual design was strong enough. This felt odd as they had access to my portfolio throughout the process, reviewed it before choosing to screen me, and never presented it as an issue in the conversations prior. I offered to do a design challenge to put concerns about my skills to rest, which they declined.
After investing so many hours of time into the process and being told feedback was positive throughout, this was a bit of a blindside. I was very excited about the role and felt great up until it didn't. I never got specific feedback about how to improve for the future. Because of the surprising turn of events and time invested, it was overall a negative experience.
