Nice team to talk to, very informative about the role in question. Tech test team were instructive, receptive and understanding. Values team are engaging, genuinely interested in finding out more about you and informative about the role

Probably my worst experience interviewing ever. It didn't start out as such, first interviews went really well. Straight into techy stuff. Then onto tech exercise/test which I actually enjoyed. Without divulging too much it involved reading some CSVs and handling the data in them. I then had the test review meeting, which was a little harder. I was questioned about what I'd do differently, which I feel I answered well. Obviously in a real world work-life scenario I'd of made my solution more dynamic, and not had it be as dependent on the shape of the array from the CSVs. I passed that round and the next round was a ridiculous SOFT INTERVIEW about values right at the end. Soft interviews belong at the beginning, that way candidates are less likely to waste their precious time doing tech exercises for you and answering tech questions. It also means you don't waste the time of the devs you currently employee. They're not a cheap resource. The feedback from the recruiter was that I did well on the tech side but I failed the values side. One question was describe a mistake you've made at work and what you learned. I was told I would not be judged on this. I was open about this, and explained about a time 10+ years ago as a Junior, where, I accidentally sent emails to customers with an unfortunately named attachment. I was testing PDF generation generation functionality for an invoice system and named my test file 'send_us_money.pdf'. I explained to them about what I learned from this. It was ultimately used against me in deciding against me. They also misconstrued my meanings and attributed meaning erroneously. Ironic, given that their 5th value is "We listen, learn and improve". The first part of that is definitely wrong. Another value is we're an open book, I completely disagree, I actually thought that this interview had gone well but it was a series of disingenuous fake smiles. I appealed the decision, but they came up with other nonsense to try and justify it, which is fine. I'd slept on it by this point and I'd already decided I wouldn't work in a place which judges based on actions I've already learned from, made years ago, and which don't even concern them. They had failed my values tests. Furthermore, it would have been a bitter and shaky start to overcome, and I didn't trust them as they hadn't been very open and honest. I completely understand if my values don't align with theirs, or theirs with mine. It happens. By the time the values meeting took place, I'd interviewed for 2.5hrs plus spent 3-4 hrs on the tech exercise. The values meeting belongs at the beginning. I suggest you listen, learn, and improve, by fixing that. I ought to invoice you for time wasted time, which you could easily have avoided.