The process was way too long, 6 stages.
HR call / interview - was negotiated down on a fair / pegged NL salary
Engineering interview - went well, interviewer reading from a page, seemed disinterested
Take home technical assessment - clear they're recruiting for a role they know nothing about, say the assessment takes 4-6 hours, I spend that amount of time and submit, they're unhappy with my answers.
The feedback is very specific about areas of focus and the expectations were really wide and contradictory. They expected a level detail which takes days to apply, and literally expected a whole project with diagrams , code snippets and documentation in a 6 hour time frame.
I explain that they should have mentioned what they wanted the candidate should focus on and not give an open ended test, they then admit that their assessment is in an experimental stage and that i am essentially a guinea pig, expecting to milk me for my feedback further.
Add to this the next step is a technical interview,
then a culture fit panel interview,
then you work with them for a day (without pay) before getting an offer