My experience as a candidate applying to BMLL was mixed. I found the technical team quite inspiring to work with and very much enjoyed my time discussing with them. The HR department and senior management unfortunately less so and I felt like my time was wasted by some of their organisational indecision and long hiring process.
I had initially applied to another role at BMLL and had advanced several stages before being told the role no longer existed. I was then invited specifically to interview for their Data Engineering position as they said I would be a strong fit. Although this was quite different to the type of roles I interview for, I kept an open mind which was rewarded by a fruitful 2 technical interviews I enjoyed having. In the final stage I met with both HR and a CTO and had a pleasant conversation about compensation and the company. With HR I spoke about the range of compensation ~40k, and I politely mentioned that while I had a more competitive offer in the pipeline of 55k I could perhaps consider meeting halfway as the job and career progression could be interesting. I don't believe I was asking for much, this is a London Fintech and my competing offer wasn't even in banking, or London.
I was rejected after this final round the next day with feedback that my level of experience was not quite ready yet for BMLL, which was quite contradictory to when I was strongly encouraged to apply for this role.
The fact that after 5 rounds of interviews BMLL would not offer a competitive salary at all was quite frustrating along with their change of mind on what roles are being hired. A shame as the actual team doing the real work was very switched on.