I applied online and was reached out by the hiring manager to schedule a screening with them before moving forward to a panel interview with themselves and other members. I thought it was a little odd that the hiring manager reached out to me before the recruiter. The interview went well with the hiring manager although it seemed that when the conversation of compensation came up, I was asking for more than they budgeted. This is normally fine, but this conversation should have happened with a recruiter or HR, not the hiring manager. I was told that a recruiter would reach out to me although they never did, I found out by looking at the portal.