I've participated in a lot of interview processes, on both sides of the table, in the last twenty years and it's been a long time since I've experienced a situation as bad as the one I experienced during this interview process. 1. The structure of the process was fine: phone call with the person conducting the process, then an in-person meeting with the Founder and the People head, followed by a virtual task session. 2. The process itself was a little messy in places. a. At one stage I was asked to confirm my availability for afternoon time slots and then sent an invitation for a morning interview and subsequently had to rearrange my diary to accommodate. b. I was asked frequently to send WhatsApp voice notes with questions rather than being able to email them or discuss them in the moment, which isn't something I've ever experienced or would recommend in an interview process. c. To arrange the final feedback call, I was messaged on WhatsApp at 10.30pm asking me to confirm my availability for the following morning and then didn't hear back on confirmation of the time slot because the organiser forgot to send me the invitation until I chased. d. In general, I felt I wasn't given much time to ask questions of the hiring team in 2 out of the 3 stages. At this level of seniority, it's a dual-sided process. I'm interviewing you as much as you're interviewing me and allowances should be made for that in timing. 3. All of the above is the minor teething issues of a relatively inexperienced team and is insignificant in comparison to the one moment that destroyed the entire process for me. During the final feedback call, I was told (and I genuinely cannot believe that I'm writing this in 2023) that it was arrogant of me to use the word "I" when giving responses to questions about my own experiences and achievements. That I should have used the word "we" instead. To clarify, I was asked questions, specifically, about what I had done, not what a team that I was in had done. At this level of seniority, it is very common for a person to have led large projects and taken ownership of significant tasks. Additionally, a Chief of Staff usually does not have a team in an earlier-stage business. All examples that I gave were of my own work. Furthermore, I was told that this issue of 'arrogance' wasn't seen in the other candidates in the process. I believe (because the task documents were shared with the same link to everyone in the process so I could see two other people accessing them at the same time as me and I was able to look those people up) that the two other people in the process were male. I am female. Incisive and constructive feedback should always be a part of an interview process. I expect to receive feedback on how I approach tasks in relation to what the team are looking for. What happened here was not feedback. To be absolutely clear, if you are telling a woman that she is 'arrogant' for taking ownership of her own achievements when you are asking her questions about those achievements, and you go as far as to state that you don't have that problem with the men in the process, that is not incisive and constructive feedback. That is misogyny. Pure as the driven yellow snow. What's particularly illuminating to me is the response that I was given when I asked for the feedback to be emailed to me. I was told "I'm not going to do that." To any woman thinking of joining this company, please take particular notice. It's never in the carefully-constructed virtue-signalling values of the website footers that you will find this kind of treatment. Rather it's in the unrecorded moments, in the things they won't write down, the things that have you questioning "Did that actually just happen?". It's in these moments that you'll find who people truly are and what they think of you. I expect early-stage businesses to be figuring out their processes and procedures and that is okay. What is never okay is misogyny and discrimination. If you think there is a problem with a woman confidently stating her achievements, I promise you the problem is not with her. Do better.