These guys get it. A recruiter reached out and we went back and forth a bit. There were some delays due to an offsite team event, but they communicated well and the phone screen went fine. For the second round interview, the VP I spoke to was professional and personable, and the conversation was a positive experience. Within 24 hours they let me know they would not proceed with my candidacy, but were very clear and direct about the reasons for it. They gave recommendations for skilling up and applying in the future, and invited me to continue following the company. Despite the outcome, I felt encouraged and energized by the process. This is how recruiting and interviewing should be done.

Met first with CEO of this agency and this went extremely well. Next I met with VP of Demand Generation who showed up almost fifteen minutes late. I emailed the person in HR a few minutes into the call to make sure everything was ok? My Zoom window clearly showed, "Host has joined. We've let them know you're here." So I was on standby for almost fifteen minutes. Once this person joined they acted like the delay had been my fault. Then they went on to ask vague, open-ended questions that didn't seem to have much thought or effort put into them. To add injury to insult, the call went over the allotted hour (again probably due to the fact that the VP was fifteen minutes late to the call!). Never was this person's mistake acknowledged to either: (1) reschedule the call, (2) take into account the lack of professionalism and disruption that something like that can do to an interview process.