First a phone screen with a recruiter then had second round with a senior staff. We spoke, but even my roommate who was in the same room agreed he was like a zombie. We spoke about my experience, but he seemed to drag the mood down and I was sure I was rejected.
Surprisingly, I made it to the technical assessment. It involved summarizing a contract, forecasting and analyzing data. I moved on to the team interview, which was back-to-back interviews with four people in the team, including the guy from the second round. It was tiring, and I would have liked to interview with everyone at once to see the team's chemistry. Best of all, the final interview was my zombie from the second round, overall a very negative and draining set of interviews.
Later the recruiter called me to give me feedback that I was negative and I will not pass. To be honest I felt drained and negative too speaking to them. And I know the zombie probably felt this before, so if it was a dealbreaker why bring me to the final round and hold it against me?
Now that I have interviewed with more people, I see there are many ways to react to what I am saying. Every interview I have said the same thing, that my current work is overwhelming, and I described what workload I had. And I had many people like the Datadog team who saw me negatively, but others have seen it positively that I can handle such an intense workload and extended an offer. I think it's all about perspective, and we were not a good fit.