I first had a conversation with the lead recruiter for the role. She told me about the position and the goals for this function that they're building. She then invited me to share a bit about my background. The conversation wasn't about walking through my resume and answering behavioral interview questions; rather, her questions centered around the stories from my experience and learning what parts about my job I find especially fulfilling. It felt like she was genuinely interested in getting to know me as a person, not evaluating me against a checklist of job responsibilities. At the close of the conversation, she told me the things I shared that resonated the most with her / the opportunity at HubSpot and gave me suggestions on additional points to hit in the next round of interviews. This "listening back" wowed me -- how honest, supportive, and helpful! Truly, what other company would do this? It was my first glimpse of the incredible culture I witnessed from HubSpot, a positive impression that only grew throughout the interview process with further communications with the recruiter and an awesome initial conversation with the hiring manager. All said, I ultimately decided mid-process to pursue an alternate career route. This was a big life decision and tough to make for a variety of reasons, chief among them missing out on this opportunity at HubSpot. It really was an amazing candidate experience, one that I imagine the employee experience matches if not exceeds. I should mention that I was simultaneously interviewing for similar roles at Silicon Valley Bank (svb) and Google. There wasn't even a comparison to be made in my mind--HubSpot was the clear favorite and a place where I knew I would be empowered to grow and have impact from day one in a supportive, engaging environment. I'm a total super fan of this company and its employees.