Wow. I should have believed the reviews I read. Here's what happened: - I had the first round interview with the recruiter. He sounded a bit like a bro-y, cheesy salesman. He promised to be consistently reachable and helpful throughout the process. He quickly scheduled my next interview for a few days later in the week. In a way, it almost felt too urgent--he even tried to schedule it for that afternoon. That's flattering but pretty odd in my experience. - The next interview comes around and I speak with the hiring manager who's OK. She seems a little inexperienced and asked easy questions. Early in the interview she mentioned that they're hiring for multiple roles and that there was one better suited for me. She says she'll send over that JD and move forward with that role after the interview. - Then, I get ghosted, badly. Weeks go by with no response from either the recruiter or scheduling coordinator, despite 3 follow up attempts. No acknowledgement of even receiving the email. - Today I got a canned rejection letter. The branding is also for Byte Dance (their old name). The look of the email is just odd too. Don't they have designers working there? Overall the experience left a really bad taste in mouth for a number of reasons (not all of which are even personal). 1. The recruiter was dodgy, utterly unreachable, and deceptive. 2. Had they not moved forward with me but responded like a human being, I wouldn't even be writing this. That's the piece I can't accept and has compelled me to write my first interview review ever. 3. They don't seem to value candidates whatsoever. I work at Google and I know I have a lot to bring to the table. I'll never be applying here again. 4. This one was a major red flag. Both the interviewer and recruiter blatantly said that there wasn't much work-life-balance. Typically when this is true, they'll at least be subtle during the interview process and say something like, "you'll be wearing many hats." Saying this early on shows both a poor culture as well as a lack of understanding of the job hiring process. Aren't you trying to attract talent not scare people away? In 2021, and seemingly priding yourselves on this in the tech industry is laughable.