My skills & experience matched the position perfectly. I got a 30 minute chat, and then was told it was not progressing forward due to the worst possible feedback - "others were better" which doesn't help me at all, and frankly given how well I matched up it's hard to believe that I didn't merit at least getting to the first technical challenge. I'm not sure what the point of the 30 minute chat was. They must've been predisposed to not progressing me, in which case there should've been a chance in the chat to show otherwise, but there was nothing technical in the chat beyond an example of the sort of work I'd been doing recently. All it was was "why do you want to join us", "why do you want to leave your current company" and questions like that. Either the recruitment process is broken (why do a first interview if predisposed to not progressing & not giving a chance to show my skills) or something went wrong on my side or theirs. Maybe I gave a dud answer, or the job description wasn't accurate, or I hadn't highlighted something on my CV properly, whatever it was (or whatever the HR rep thinks it was) it would be really helpful to know that. I was told "Open" and "Honest" are company values but I didn't see any of that here. I was told I'd get a feedback form to fill in & that the HR rep would value feedback. I provided feedback directly but got no response, and got no feedback form to fill in either.

The process is quite lengthy but I enjoyed it because it gave me time to communicate with many people at the company. Specifically, I spoke to most of the people I would be working with most closely so I would have some idea of them before joining the team. I wish more companies observed this practice. I first had a call with their internal recruiter. She explained what the company does and some of the expectations of my role. It was a really good discussion and flowed very easily. Following this I was asked to complete a tech test, which is standard fare for a tech role. The test was easy to understand the instructions were well-written but I'm not sure they followed best practice in the template of their implementation. I would not have written the code that way and was actually asked during my interviews why I had -- I showed the template I was given as an excuse! I then had a two-hour interview which was in three parts: 1) Coding exercise along a dev 2) Interview with the Head of People and my potential manager 3) Interview with two members of my potential team The coding exercise was fairly simple but the pressure of the experience got to me. Notably, however, I was never made to feel bad and the developer I was partnered with was very encouraging. The other two interviews were the usual interviews but with a really positive vibe, some thoughtful questions and a transparency that not many companies show to potential candidates. I was very impressed. Upon completion of this phase I had my final interview which was booked for an hour which was also a three-parter, again with two people I would directly be interfacing with and the company director. In truth, they didn't feel like interviews so much as conversations and I really enjoyed the process. I hold the people at BNB in high regard. At this stage an offer was made but I could not accept immediately. Following some very respectful negotiation I decided not to take the offer. However, I cannot be clearer, the people at BNB were incredibly respectful during an otherwise stressful time for us both. They are good people.