Interview process was extremely long and, at times, unnecessarily drawn out. I can now see why there are already a number of similar negative experiences shared here, and unfortunately, I have to add mine to that list. I met some genuinely great people along the way, particularly within the engineering leadership team. The system design round stood out as well structured, practical, and reflective of real-world expectations for the role. However, the roleplay stage was a significant weak point. I was given four scenarios, and apparently underperformed in one, which ultimately led to a rejection. The issue is that the scenario itself felt abstract and not well defined, making it difficult to engage in a grounded, realistic way. More concerning was that the evaluation appeared to rely heavily on a single interviewer’s judgment, with no clear evidence of calibration across multiple perspectives. It felt somewhat pre-judged and narrowly assessed. It came across as the interviewer selecting for candidates who match her personal leadership style, which can become a risk for the business over time by limiting diversity of thought and leadership approaches.

I applied through Linkedin Jobs and got contacted a few days later by the internal recruiter. - Recruiter call (15m): introductory call about the process and the role. Good chat but I received just the bare minimum info about the interview process. - Senior Engineering Manager interview (1h): interviewed by a Senior Engineering Manager about my past experience with classic EM questions and examples. Good interview, well structured, right questions and enough time to ask questions myself. Average difficulty. - System Design interview (1h): interviewed by 2 Senior Engineers and tasked to build a not-so-classic system. They helped me find the right solution and asked questions along the way to dig more into my solution. Average difficulty. - Meet the team (30m): informal chat with a Senior Manager and a developer to know more about my way of working. Easy chat, I wouldn't call this a proper interview. - Role play (1h): interviewed by 2 Senior Managers and tasked to act as a manager in 4 different scenarios. Unfortunately, I was too much into the acting part of the exercise and I totally derailed from my way of leading people and teams. I can't say this step was easy since I failed it but at the same time, the interviewers never stopped me to tell me I misunderstood the role play exercise. Besides I got great feedback for the first 3 interview steps, failing the role play exercise compromised the whole interview process. When I reached out to ask for a possible follow up interview, they told me this was not possible, and this is a pity.