Initial communication was positive. Admin team sent me an overview of the interview process (detailed, structured, focused on various aspects of assessed skills). Stage I: 30 min initial interview (assessing company fit, motivation, etc). Stage II: homework (tasks like those required on the job). Stage III: 45 min final interview (soft skills).
Stage I interview was okay, although there was only one person attending (instead of the Team, as advised via email) and that person was over 15 minutes late. Interview as not extended due to that delay, and was rushed and ended early, not allowing me to ask my questions. Several red flags I noted: (1) I've got an impression that I will be required to work overtime and during weekends; (2) no specific requirements of the position or tasks performed on the role were mentioned; (3) I was told that this is FT job while it was advertised as an internship. I was invited to Stage II.
Stage II was very confusing. I obtained materials (link to data and description) for Stage II homework via email and was given one week to complete 3 out of 5 tasks. While the description of the role I applied for stated "explore platforms, identify bugs, provide actionable feedback to help refine and improve UXR", the tasks I received included building ML algorithms for detecting attention and muscle fatigue from (badly annotated) EEG data. This was not only much more complex than I would expect from the role description, but also unrealistic to complete within such a short time frame (e.g., build a Deep Learning classifier or neurofeedback app in C# or C++ for shipping with Unity). The documents were also marked with headers for another role 'Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Engineer'.
I enquired with the admin team if that was the correct set of exercises for me to complete, but I never heard back from them.
I decided to withdraw from the recruitment process because the Team did not provide me with any information as to what position I am applying for and what are the requirements of that role. Additionally, it was not clear whether the role would be PT, FT, or internship, and I did not know where it would be located.
