A third party recruiter reached out to me with a job opportunity for DTC. While I wasn't actively looking for a new job at the time, I was a good match technically and it was a company that seemed pretty decent to work for.
The first step was a phone interview and that went ok, I'm not super eloquent and talking on the phone gives me anxiety but I made it to the next part and was invited to take their coding test.
The second step is a coding challenge to develop a simple app. Even the smallest application will take a seasoned developer hours to create so I don't think they have your time in mind when they send the test out because they're literally asking you to create a small application. On top of that, they use older technologies for some processes, so if you're not familiar with them, you have to learn something you'll probably never use again solely for the purpose of completing their test.
But I did finish, because like I said, it seemed like a good company.
The third step is an onsite interview, which I was invited out for and I NAILED IT! Or so it seemed. During the FOUR HOUR INTERVIEW, I met with the dev team for a technical interview, then the director of technology, and then the CTO, the VP and finally the owner. I was given a tour of the building. The owner showed me pictures of his family on vacation. They broke out the blueprint for the new space they were building for the dev team so I could see it. The lead or whoever he was told me he'd reach out to me the next day with an offer.
I mean... to me it sounds like I nailed it.
I don't know what happened. It was my first time working with a third party recruiter but I never got my offer. After a week of "they loved you, they said this good thing and that good thing about you. You'll get your offer, we promise " the recruiter finally told me that I asked for too much as far as salary goes and they were "moving in a different direction". It was fairly shocking to me to be told as I only asked them for my current salary, I wasn't asking above the average salary for the area, and their interview process is fairly rigorous so if someone is good enough to make it through it, then the pay should match their skill. Also, its a salary negotiation.
If they had some other reason why they decided not to hire me, I'll never know because on top of everything else, I was never offered any feedback on my interview.
This all happened 6 months ago and the position I interviewed for is still open! I actually just had a contingency recruiter reach out to me, inviting me to interview with DTC, which prompted this review. The only good thing to come out of that waste of time is the experience that some companies will not think twice about wasting my time. Never Again.