I was approached through LinkedIn. Initial conversations where upfront and honest about what the role required. The last task was to solve a design exercise, at my own pace. Some flags:
- Asking to solve a design challenge about their current product is a no-no. That introduces biases, forces one to make risky assumptions, it's constraining, and overall just a wrong approach to gauge someone's experience and capacity. Learned my lesson.
- Interviewers where not experienced enough to be able to remove previous biases and institutional knowledge of the platform. Questions and follow ups where too specific.
- Challenge was not compensated.
- Salary range and title were not clear upfront. I was told it was DOE. I guess on how well I solved the challenge?
- I get that it's a small team and that chaos and scrappiness are to be expected, but product designers should never abandon their design-thinking process and its dogmas. You grow them and take them with you wherever you go.
Finally, after getting the canned rejection email, asked for feedback and never got a response.