I was referred to the company by a recruiter, and the interview process was supposed to have multiple steps: an initial recruiter screen, a chat with the Head of Engineering, a technical assignment, a technical interview, and a culture fit interview. My first real conversation was with the Head of Engineering, but it turned out to be very brief. He didn’t ask me anything about my experience, so I ended up asking most of the questions about how their team and processes worked. I even prompted him at the end to see if he had any questions for me, but he said “No” and only outlined the next steps. Afterward, I waited about a week without any update. The recruiter mentioned that the Head of Engineering might have gone “off-grid” for a bit and that there were two other candidates also waiting. Eventually, the recruiter got back to me with the news that the company decided to proceed with applicants who had more experience. I’m still unsure why they reached that conclusion, since my background wasn’t really discussed during the interview itself.