After applying for the role, I received a friendly email asking for possible dates for the first interview. Thanks to the GitLab handbook, I already knew about the 4-5 interview rounds and that it would take while to hopefully get an offer. The first interview was a general introduction, but it actually never felt like a questionnaire I had to answer. I was encouraged to share my story and thoughts, and we also cleared up organizational task like salary, (re)locations and so on. I had prepared some questions myself on how it is going to be working at GitLab, and was able to learn more. The second interview was with my future manager, and next to obligatory questions like "the one thing you did for a colleague in the past" it always felt like a friendly chat. We discussed the role requirements and ideas I already had noted. In the end, we added some more minutes since there was so much to talk about. The third interview happened with a future team member, to learn more about each other and also gather specific more insights, like my vision, where I want to head, and also diversity (actually I brought this up and it was well received). The biggest interview was the presentation (20 min) with an audience of team leads and members from other departments. A challenging mix with a 20 minutes question and answer panel afterwards. Even though I was a little nervous, they encouraged me all the way through. Every question and feedback was positive and motivating to lead the way for my answers. I honestly never had that experience in previous job interviews. The recruiting team almost immediately responded to my many questions throughout the interview process, and guided me in a kind and friendly way. Everything was shared in full transparency where both sides have benefited from. Also, I received help with practicing for the presentation from my future manager, which is an outstanding unexpected favor. One specific thing in terms of time management was the timezone difference so all interviews happened in the evening outside of current work hours.