The ultimate example of what not to do during a hiring process is on full display with fanfare at Canonical. Believe the reviews here, don't waste your precious time (and you could be wasting a lot). I thought I'd prove the reviews to be wrong but I was dearly mistaken.
7 months or so to interview with everybody up to the CEO. Said yes, but did not make an offer. Canonical stopped communicating and withdrew my application without discussion with me. Follow ups went unanswered. Unconscionable behaviour, the height of rudeness.
Despite what is said in support of their own process, it is clear from questions made to me about their process, that Canonical staff appear completely and utterly forced to carry out their unique and largely faulty and misguided hiring process, which was alluded to by more than one interviewer.
Interviewers made it clear that Mark Shuttleworth is involved in most decisions, almost everything is up to him. Okay then and if he has the bandwidth, fine, but it was evident the interviewers weren't that happy about not being empowered.
Canonical is convinced they have it right, and they will take their time with hiring, and they will attract and secure the best talent. That's their "choice", but it's pretty clear that is dead wrong. If their process was superior, every company would be doing it. But none are. That's very telling isn't it - the market has spoken.
I wish I had better things to say. I genuinely wanted to work at Canonical and as someone recognised as top talent for most of my career, it appears to be Canonical's loss. They were unable to take even a small risk in hiring me, see how I go and decide in the probabation period whether it was working out or not. Couldn't even do that. Stunning really. Left unchanged, their hiring process will be detrimental, it's already affecting the brand. If they haven't done so already, Canonical's customers will figure it out also and lead to revenue implications.