I interviewed for a designer position at Valve. They invited me to interview for the full loop. The interview itself was fairly average on the questions they asked, but I marked it as 'difficult' because I normally encounter one, maybe two design challenges in a full-day loop, but there were more than that so it was more exhausting than difficult. I was not given any information on who my interviewers would be, just to come prepared for a full day of interviews. I ended up meeting 10-12 people. I came in, set up my portfolio review. The studio was gracious with their refreshments and snacks. It's a gorgeous space. Two people entered. I gave my portfolio spiel and got interrupted a few times so that I wasn't able to show my entire project. No sweat. I figured I had answered the questions lobbed to me and explained what I owned and how I measured success in the projects I did. Then two more people came in to do an exercise on developing an app for a zoo. This was UI / UX related so I felt comfortable walking them through my process. I asked about the audience, goals, and I drew out the work on a notepad. They took mock roles as the developers and producers. It was enjoyable and we had a good amount of laughs. I did a lunch interview with another two people. This was enjoyable, just chatting and socializing and explaining what my goals were and why I was leaving my previous job. They asked me what I would do if I came to Valve since I could choose my own projects. Another two came in to ask me to design a scoring system for L4D. Being a huge fan, I dove deep into the game's mechanics, despite this interview question being decidedly not the role of a UI/UX designer. This was whiteboarding challenge and I thought I'd done well as a game designer here. I think I lucked out because I was a big fan of L4D, but I don't know that this would be an easy question for all UX designers. I had another two people come in to interview me on a Steam library subscription model. I'm a huge fan of Game Pass, so I also dug deep into my understanding of that, what its pros and cons and the value it brings to the player and what Steam would need to do to compete. At the end of the day, they ask you to stick around as they make their decision. Two people came in: the who had originally championed me and one of my interviewers from the L4D prompt. They asked me how I thought I did. I said that I thought I honestly thought I did the best I could, and whatever the result was, I wouldn't change much about my approach. He paused and then he said that they would like to make me offer. The L4D person told me he'd never gotten such a thorough answer before and high-fived me. I was told that the only critique was that I didn't really showcase my UX work (which is fair, I didn't get through my portfolio for reasons mentioned above), but that that was their only concern. I thanked everyone profusely, then I called my partner and I went home and waited for my offer to come in. Over the next couple weeks, I put in my letter of resignation at my current role and fielded HR calls with Valve. On the Friday that I put in my two weeks, I got an email out of the blue with HR. They asked me if I could get on the call in the next 15 minutes. I agreed, I hopped on the call, and they told me that they were revoking the offer because they weren't sure how I would fit with the culture, and if I could drive my own work. Rather than offering me a contract role or the ability to interview and speak to their concerns again, they apologized and washed their hands of me. I didn't hear from them again.