I saw an advert for a role published on the Adyen website based in Amsterdam, I applied and sent over my CV. I heard back from Adyen quite quickly who shortlisted me for a skype interview which was conducted by two of the colleagues from the team I was applying to join. Prior to the interview taking place, I was advised it would be a biographical interview informally discussing my experience and why I wanted to apply for the role. The informal discussion quite quickly turned in to a competency based interview which I thought was a little surprising but as I was prepared it didn’t worry me remotely. What I did notice was the lack of structure during the interview, I felt the interviewers were not prepared and the questions they asked were better suited to a face to face interaction. That being said the two employees I spoke with were very friendly and I think it was a positive experience overall. I was advised I had made it to the next round of selection. The second interview was also skype based; I was advised this would be an informal discussion with the two other members of the team. Given my previous experience I didn’t take any chances and prepared for a competency based interview. Not to my surprise, neither of the interviewers appeared to be prepared or knew what they were doing. The questions I was asked were all competency based and again there was no structure or clear purpose to the interview. I was told I would hear back within a week, I received an email telling me I wasn’t successful with none of the feedback as promised. I made a number of attempts to contact the people who interviewed me by email and over the phone to receive timely feedback but regrettably to date I have heard nothing, this experience I think echoes what other candidates have noted on Glassdoor. For a firm that makes a lot of noise about its culture and people being encouraged to “take initiative & ownership” my experience demonstrates there is a clear gulf between the rhetoric and actual experience of dealing with the firm. My simple advice to the firm is, if you want to attract international talent start by taking a closer look at the way your firm handles interviews. Akin to this look at the mechanism for providing feedback when it’s asked for or at least answer your emails! I’d also add the people that conduct the interviews are ambassadors for Ayden’s brand image to those of us who are potential future employees. If they’re ill prepared and you expect candidates to be fully prepared investing time and energy it doesn’t reflect well on Ayden as a global business.