It started with a phone screen, fairly standard. It took a week to hear back after applying; another week to interview. Red Flag 1 - Slow Process: There was another two weeks between when the phone screen occurred to when they issued me a take home project. This is a long time to ask a candidate to wait before hearing back. Most will assume they have ghosted you! The take home was long and arduous, and probably will consume an entire weekend if you want to meet all their requirements. This is a really big ask for a candidate. Red Flag 2 - Long Take Home Project: Bear in mind, at this point, I know NOTHING about Pachama except what my own research showed. Later I find out this take home looks suspiciously like something they are actively working on. Free labor! I was told about a week after the project was reviewed that it passed the inspection test and was moved onto the next set of interviews. There are three of them: one was a technical interview, the next was a coding interview & another with the engineering manager. I had asked for an accelerated timeline because I was far along with interviews at other companies. The technical interview was decent, I enjoyed speaking with the tech lead, and I left with a strong sense that he really wanted me on his team. I believe we connected pretty well on our enjoyment of nature and had a great discussion on level of ML maturity. The coding interview was a LeetCode Easy/Medium, and I believe I did well. I was also able to answer the runtime questions on Big O as well and was correct. Again, after this interview, I left with a strong sense of being a good fit. The interview with the engineering manager appeared to also go well and was more experience/ behavioral based. Again, left with a strong sense that I was doing well. Finally, they scheduled an interview with me with the CEO, which is the final round. I spoke with the CEO, and was pretty much immediately rapid fired behavioral questions, about 15-20 if my count is correct. This interview was odd and was the start of getting a bad taste in my mouth. Red Flag 3 - Distracted Interviewer: He wasn’t really paying attention to me. His eyes were everywhere else. I get it, he’s busy. Why bother interviewing me? Red Flag 4 – Overly Personal Questions: He also asked me questions I felt were way too personal and completely rude in many ways. (Such as asking if I have siblings, or asking me about my upbringing from my parents- these weren't asked casually, they were asked as interview questions) Nevertheless, before we got off the phone, I was still left with a sense that they still wanted me given that he said something to the effect of Thank you for following your inner voice. We really need people like you and I know the team is really excited to work with you. So, despite some of these hang-ups, I was absolutely ecstatic about the position. Finally, I had the chance to pair up my ML knowledge with something meaningful. I fully, without a doubt in my mind, expected an offer. Red Flag 5 - Rejected Because Time?: Well, I was surprised to hear they declined me. They knew all along that I had other offers on the table, and it wasn't a problem until then. But that's the reason they gave me: because of their timeline. They had other candidates in the pipeline they haven't had a chance to review yet. So they let me off. I asked for more of a reason than that, and was hit with "You were a great candidate and the team was really excited about you, but your timeline isn't going to work with ours." Now, as a person who has interviewed dozens of other candidates, this is odd to me. Why would you leave a supposedly great candidate waiting or let them go? Why did you string me along for all these interviews + a CEO interview, just to say you were too quick for us. So obviously, I didn't meet their expectations. I wanted a better reason, something to take away. Red Flag 6 - No Feedback to Give - But when I asked for feedback, they just said "you were a great candidate, but it was a tough decision". That isn't feedback. Maybe I wasn't a great culture fit, or I didn't have as much experience they needed, or there was just some super awesome chap in the interview pipeline who looked better on paper than me? Anything would have done. It’s angering because they led me on, and I always had a really good sense I was doing great. At no point did I feel or receive ANY negative feedback ! I mean, who says “we are really excited to work with you” only to not hire them? Then they tell me to go accept the other job offers I have, to take what’s in front of me rather than waiting for something better. Perhaps I should turn that around and give them that advice. I mean, how can you trust a company like this? Even if they turned around & offered me something, I would never trust it. They claim to be ethical, in service of the greater good & then they treat people like this.