Recruiter contacted me via LinkedIn in August. We exchanged a few emails until September 1st, when he disappeared until asking to schedule a phone call on September 28th, then disappeared again until October 27th. We set up our first call for a few days later, then the day of the call he pushed it back a few hours. I emailed him 15 minutes after that new time had passed and we were on the phone 10 minutes after that. During that call he scheduled a first phone interview with an engineer for the following week. I emailed the recruiter 10 minutes past the scheduled start of my phone interview. He didn't respond, but the engineer called 20 minutes later. The call was supposed to be 45 minutes to an hour, and started 30 minutes late, but ended up lasting 80 minutes. Toward the end the interviewing engineer told me that, if I passed this interview, the next step would be a timed programming project. After 7 days of no followup, I emailed the recruiter. He responded 3 minutes later, telling me "Everything definitely went well" and scheduled another phone call for the next day. During the call he told me I was being considered for two different jobs, with different followup tests. After the call he emailed me a schedule for a 6-hour "Tech Test" for one of the jobs, to take place 2 days later. I spent a couple hours downloading the software needed for the test ahead of time. The engineer assigned to proctor my Tech Test sent me the test materials 25 minutes after the scheduled start, but told me he'd extend the end time to make up for it. The project was to write an HTTP server that accepted and returned data encoded in JSON. There were several endpoints, some of which were marked as being “Extra Credit”. I implemented all but one and submitted my code to the proctor, asking him to verify it was accepting and returning data the way he expected. After 40 minutes, he responded telling me that it was not. We ended up exchanging 15 more messages and 3 more code submissions, but I was never able to determine in what way my API server and his test suite were having trouble communicating. (By the end, I was convinced this was intended as a test of how well I interact with less-than-helpful coworkers rather than a test of my technical abilities.) After 5 days of no followup, I emailed the recruiter. After two more pings over the next 2 days, we connected by phone. He told me my technical test “wasn’t above the bar” for the job, but that I could re-apply in 12 months. I asked about the second job I had been being considered for and he said he would look into it. After 4 days of no followup, I emailed the recruiter. The next day he emailed me back asking to schedule a phone call. We spoke and the recruiter mentioned that he had had problems with my proctor’s “tact” during previous technical tests, that “he should have helped you out more than he did, that's obvious”, and that he would not be using that proctor for any future tests, but it still seemed I was being turned down for the second job as well. The next week (now December 1), the recruiter emailed me asking when I wanted to take the second job’s 4-hour technical test. After a few (initially surprised) emails we scheduled it for the 4th. This second programming project proctor mailed me the project files at the exact scheduled start time. I completed all of the required components and all of the extra credit, and had a nice time conversing with the proctor over email. After 7 days of no followup, I emailed the recruiter. He told me my proctor and potential future tech lead “were both really impressed and we would like to move forward to the onsite interview stage”. The next morning he asked me to formally apply via jobvite.com, and that afternoon a recruiting coordinator emailed me proposing I interview the next week (in 6 days). After completing the initial application through jobvite.com and finalizing my itinerary with the recruiting coordinator, I was given a packet containing a second application form, instructions for writing an essay about my past accomplishments (including a list of standardized test scores, going back to 1997, I needed to provide), and details about an alternatively “20-25-minute” or “20-50-minute” presentation I would be making just before my 1:1 interviews began. All of the packet’s contents (including a PPT or PDF of my presentation’s slides) needed to be submitted to the recruiter and recruiting coordinator 24 hours before my interview. While working through the packet, I emailed the recruiter, and kept the recruiting coordinator on the cc, to ask about some details of the presentation. The recruiting coordinator replied to let me know that he couldn’t answer my questions, and that the recruiter was actually out of the office until the day I needed to submit my packet. The interview itself started with a tour of [...] After 18 days of no followup, I emailed the jobvite.com thread. 4 hours later, [...]