The process started off structured, fast, and professional. Unfortunately, the final stage and the transition to the decision didn't seem to carry that same level of attention to detail.
After four stages including meeting the co-founder, receiving an automated, inaccurate email that even misidentified the role and interviewing stage was very disappointing and it felt quite unprofessional.
At this very last stage, proactive and transparent feedback should be the standard, rather than a generic template and gift offers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Provide examples of how you manage trade offs and align on priorities when collaborating with PMs
After the initial HR interview I was asked to do a "small" take home assignment. After one week of working on this assignment I was told by the HR rep that the hiring manager is sick so that they will get back to me after NY. After almost 4 weeks of waiting I get a rejection email with really vague feedback. The first point of feedback was basically just some corporate word salad that doesn't mean anything. The second point referred to metrics that I missed to include in the study which wasn't true - they were there. It seemed like some generic copy paste rejection email that they just use to send to everyone so in the end, I didn't even get something constructive that I can use to better myself in the future. After putting a lot of time and effort into this study I believe I deserved at least a chance to present my work to the team. If you're not serious about hiring, then don't make people spend time on your assignments as it is extremely disrespectful. This is just a huge red flag and tbh I'm glad I dodged the bullet. If this is how they treat their candidates then I can only image how they treat their employees.
I applied online. I interviewed at deskbird in Oct 2025
Interview
I talked to the hiring manager who was very enthusiastic about my application. He told me to complete a challenge and that the hiring managers were looking forward to talking to you, so I should complete it as soon as possible. After investing several hours into it I sent it and then had to wait a week to get a negative response. Although they "liked" my challenge, my salary expectations did not align with theirs (these we communicated upfront when I applied). In the end I did a lot of work for nothing.
