I applied to Rivian and heard back about a screening with an internal recruiter a week later. The screening went well, and I had an interview with the hiring manager, also about a week later. That went very well, but at this point, I noticed a lack of communication from the recruiters. One week after that, I was given a tech assessment, which was somewhat ambiguous and took me at least 10 hours (perhaps I’m slow, but this included logic, UX/UI, and light testing/documentation). I didn’t get any specific feedback about what I did well or poorly on the assessment, but I guess I did well enough to move to the last step: a series of 4 interviews that lasted about 3.5 hours. This was scheduled for 2 weeks after I finished the tech assessment.

Just to be clear, I was not the reason the interviews were so spread out. I would have much rather finished all the interviews in a week or two, but this was nearly a month and a half after I had initially applied. I was in no hurry to leave my job, but it still felt like things were dragging on with Rivian. The panel interview also went well, and two days later, I heard back from the recruiter; they wanted to offer me the position. I was elated, as I am passionate about EVs and their goals. That was 1 month and 10 days after I first spoke with them. Over the next few weeks, I continued to talk with them about the “offer packet” they were working on for me. I would reach out to the two internal recruiters I’d been in touch with, and they’d say something about the holidays, or getting the offer packet ready the next day. Early on, they gave me a start date that was 3 weeks out. As that start date drew nearer, I reached out more, as I wanted to ensure I could give adequate notice to my current company. I would go days or weeks without hearing from the main point of contact, so I’d reach out to the other internal recruiter, and eventually the hiring manager. In the end, I went about two MORE weeks (after everything listed above) without hearing from either recruiter or the hiring manager. The start date they had offered came and went. I finally got two automated emails from Rivian saying they went with another candidate. That email arrived 1 month and 10 days after they gave me a verbal offer, and about 2 months and 20 days after they first contacted me. The fact that the recruiters told me numerous times that they were still working on my offer letter, and in the end, both they and the hiring manager just ignored me, leads me to believe this was coordinated. This seems to be a policy; I’m not sure if it’s a policy held by the company as a whole, or if it’s just the Manufacturing organization. The only alternative is that 3 separate people decided they didn’t have the guts to tell a candidate the truth. I’d much rather have heard that they were still interviewing for the role, instead of getting my hopes up. I’m glad I didn’t put in my 2 weeks notice at my current position.

I should also note that the pay range they offered was not competitive. I mentioned that I would want more than my current salary (which was low to begin with), and it would even still be close to a non-negligible pay cut for me; I was OK with that, based off of my alignment with their mission. I wonder if that played a part in them ghosting me; if that’s the case, they should have told me they couldn’t offer an extra 7% in pay for someone overqualified and passionate about what they do. I probably would have even settled for the initial offer in that case. Instead, they left me hanging, gave me hope, and wasted my time. I absolutely would not recommend even applying for Rivian. It was the worst job application experience I’ve ever had.