I was contacted via email by a recruiter in January saying "they were impressed by my resume and would like to speak." I immediately recognized the recruiters name. This was the 4th time she had contacted me in 2.5 years with the exact same email. I had responded immediately to her previous emails after which I received no response. We arranged a time to speak on the phone. When we spoke on the phone I mentioned that she had contacted me 3 months earlier and when I responded I never heard from her again. She had no recollection. I didn't bother to tell her this was a pattern and it had 3 more times besides this. She the went on to set up an interview between myself and the hiring manager for the following week.
I spoke with the hiring manager and felt that it went really well. After this I heard nothing for week. I finally decided to reach out to the recruiter and told her I thought it went very well. She responded that the hiring manager thought so as well and the next step would be a "take home programming assignment."
I was then given the assignment which I completed and submitted. Next two week go by and I don't hear anything from the recruiter. I then reached out to her again and asked if there was any status update on my candidacy. This is now the second time that I had to "drive" the process.
After another 3 weeks a code review is finally scheduled. I walked to SREs through my code and explained my choices etc. This interview seemed to be positive as well.
Another couple of weeks go by and I hear nothing from the recruiter and decide to reach out again. This time I am told there a second assignment I need to complete which is reviewing a pull request. I completed this assignment immediately and pinged the recruiter to let her know I had finished.
Another couple of weeks go by and I hear nothing from the recruiter. By now it is actually March. This process started in January. I reached out yet again to the recruiter and we spoke on the phone. She explained to me that everything had gone well and that I would now be moving forward to the final round of interviews and could I provide some available times to schedule this. I added time slots to her and her coordinator's calendar. And then again I heard nothing, more radio silence from her.
Finally her coordinator got back to me and said that the times I had provided coincided with the company's offisite meeting and he asked if I could add some more times. I added some more time to their calendar and then hear nothing. Three weeks go by, it is basically April at this point. I then get an email from the recruiter saying "we have decided to not hire for the position now" adding that "I should check back in the future." You can not make this stuff up. These people are not only disrespectful of other people's time but they generally seem to be "out to lunch" and absent-minded.
My guess is that the rest of the company has no idea how their recruiting team is representing them. I have since talked to other people who had similar experiences so this is clearly not an anomaly.
My advice would be don;t waste your time with these folks.