Had an initial call with the recruiter who was really good at explaining the company culture and next steps. Was sent a PR to review but was told through via the recruiter I would get an opportunity to discuss my PR review with a team member after submission. The PR I was reviewing was overly simplistic and was instructed to give feedback that could be actionable. Never got any feedback just a generic rejection message a few days after submission.

I was contacted by a recruiter about the position and we scheduled a time to discuss within a few days of the cold call. I did my due diligence and checked the GD review on this company and was a little hesitant as there are many negative reviews about the interview process and, in particular, for this role. However, I'm feeling that the criticism I am reading wouldn't be something that bothers me so much, so I proceed to accept the call. The screen with the recruiter went well; I liked the mission of the org, the recruiter was pleasant and knowledgable and I seemed to be a good fit. We discussed the next phase of the interview, which was to review a technical design document and provide input with the simple instruction being: review this technical design document just as you would as an engineering manager. At this point, I haven't spoken with anyone except the recruiter so I have very little to go off of. I got into the spirit of it and poured over the 16 page technical design design document. I've been doing these technical reviews for years, so this felt very natural and I expected that it would have gone well. I kept all of my feedback constructive, asked questions, didn't prescribe solutions and was quite thorough. After 8 days I received an email notification that they would not be proceeding but without any feedback as to why. I replied requesting feedback on the review so as to understand what it is that is not aligning with their expectations or needs. I have not received a reply to this email. Additionally, and worth calling out, is a note in the rejection email that I found particularly offensive and disheartening. They thanked me for the time I invested in the process but also stated: "I just wanted you to know that we don't take the time you've spent with us lightly. We've spent sufficient time on our end as well, reading, debating, and regrouping." Which seems a curious move to make, creating a false equivalency between the time invested by candidates in the interview process to get a job and employers getting paid to perform their job when evaluating candidates.