M. has run platform teams for twelve years. The fintech's recruiter called the role "urgent." The process that followed included a screening call, two technical interviews, a six-hour take-home, a take-home defence, a systems round, a values round, a panel, and a "quick chat" with a VP who asked what his weaknesses were.
Week eleven: an email arrived. For a moment he thought it was the offer. It was a notification that the role had been reposted — with one extra round added to the description.
"I'd already done more work for them unpaid," he says, "than their take-home asked me to estimate."