The interview process was simple: a recruiter call, take-home assignment, and onsite. The recruiter call was straightforward, just asking about your background and answering basic questions about the company. Same with the take-home - basic ML build-a-model case, nothing particularly tricky or unreasonable. The onsite was seven different rounds, reviewing the take home and other ML/eng questions, plus a convo with the hiring manager. The last conversation was a quick summary with the recruiter, which I appreciated - it was nice of them to touch base and let you know when you will hear back. I did not get an offer, and the feedback was that I was fine on all technical areas, but the hiring manager just didn't think there was a strong connection. I really appreciate the willingness to share feedback after the fact. I think a lot of companies are unwilling to share feedback because they are trying to cover up inappropriate biases. In this case, I think the hiring manager is a bit capricious and just didn't like something about me that he couldn't really describe, and wanted to wait for a candidate more like him. The recruiter even messaged him to try to change his mind; my guess is he just really didn't like me as a person. I would have appreciated talking to him BEFORE the take-home or onsite to figure that out early. I definitely feel like Carta wasted my time. I would steer clear of this DS/ML team, it seems like the hiring manager is biased against people not like himself. The team was more male-heavy than most, and based on the manager's attitude, it seems like I wouldn't have fit in anyway. No hard feelings towards Carta - the recruiter was really nice and I think it's great that they are transparent. It's very uncommon and more companies should be like this! Summary feedback: - it's awesome to share feedback when rejecting a candidate - thank you for being transparent! - be better about responding to emails (for example, the recruiter said she would schedule a prep call w me before the interview but did not and never responded to my email asking about it - I don't really need a prep call but just be consistent with communication) - MAIN FEEDBACK: if you have a capricious hiring manager, make sure you schedule a hiring manager conversation FIRST, before the take-home or onsite, so you don't waste a candidate's time. If a candidate meets all technical bars, rejecting them with a fuzzy "I just didn't like her" is really rude - we could have figured that out BEFORE I invested time into Carta's take home and onsite.