The interview process started with an HR interview, followed by an in-person interview with the CTO at their Levent office. After that, I had another interview with the Group CTO. Unfortunately, the process felt unnecessarily long and inefficient. There were too many CTO-level interviews, and many of the questions asked were unrelated to the role or my experience.
What made the experience worse was what happened at the end of the process. After multiple technical and managerial interviews, HR called me and offered an unpaid position under the title of “intern,” despite me having 1.5 years of experience. When I explained that there is a legal minimum payment requirement and that unpaid work in this situation was not acceptable, I clearly stated that I was no longer interested in continuing.
About five minutes later, they called me back saying that I was right and suddenly offered the legal minimum amount instead. At that point, I honestly found the situation unprofessional and almost laughable, considering how many interviews and technical evaluations they had already put me through.
Trying to take advantage of someone with experience by labeling them as an intern, while also expecting them to go through an exhausting interview process, left a very negative impression on me.