I think this company has no intent of hiring anyone for this position. This position was initially published in NAMER in December 2023 then by around Feb 2024 it was published in EMEA. Deel received hundreds of thousands of application in both these locations but did not manage to find one suitable candidate. Then few months later it was published in APAC and then again in EMEA. I sincerely believe that Deel is just creating a mirage of growth to mislead the investors. They are probably planning another round of fund raising or something and want the investors to believe the Boom story. There are no real openings, they are just wasting candidates time here. How else can they explain not being able to find one candidate across 4 continents in the past 9 months?

I think the overall experience for interviewing for this position was weird and made me feel lost. At the time of the application you need to mention about your work permit status. Majority of the expats residing in the GCC countries will click on 'I am authorized to work in the country based on a valid work permit which needs to be sponsored by the company I work for' but as I later understood that Deel does not sponsor any visa or work permit and the chances of your application being rejected are significantly high if you click on this option. The recruiter mentioned to me that I need to get my own visa, I needed the job and was fine to invest in getting my own visa as it is my choice to reside in the UAE. It is illegal for employers in the UAE to take money from employees for visa but Deel gets around with this by not giving an employment contract but engaging you on a contractor model. I was fine with this, what really got weird was the recruiter wanted me to get this visa before I had even interviewed for the position. This meant I would have to spend about USD 3000 plus to get my independent visa, get my dependents residency sorted (since they are currently linked to my visa) and then have a chance to interview. I explained my predicament to the recruiter and thankfully she agreed to let me go through the first round of Peer interview. The Peer interview was basic, there was nothing extra ordinary. It started off with basic likes and dislikes and then moved over to situation based questions from Benefits standpoint to assess how you think. At the end of the interview, I asked the interviewer about next steps, she mentioned that she will input her feedback in the system and then the recruiter will let me know of the outcome. I will then have to complete a Home task, meeting with the HOD and then finally meeting with someone senior to the HOD who apparently reports to the CEO. When the interview mentioned about the Home task, she did mention a caveat, 'if you pass that then you will move over to the next stage.' This seemed fair and weird to be honest at that time but I did not give much thought to it. That very night the recruiter emailed me that I had passed the Peer interview stage and will now have to complete the Home task. The Home task was again situation based questions on how you would work to change insurance carriers, project planning, etc. I took about a day to complete the task and then emailed it back to the recruiter, eager to receive the feedback. I received the feedback on the Home Task exactly a week later with a generic regret email, saying that they are unable to give personalized feedback. At this time, I was furious. I had taken the time to write 1600 plus words and the company is unable to give me a feedback of 2 sentences? I wrote back to the recruiter and mentioned that I accept the decision but the manner is unacceptable. I would like to know why exactly I failed in order to improve. That same evening the recruiter responded saying, 'We do consider your background highly interesting but we have identified some errors that raised concerns regarding the accuracy of written communication, a crucial aspect for the position in question. Additionally, we noticed that the submitted home-task appeared somewhat stiff in terms of presentation and style, which does not fully align with the dynamic qualities we seek in our team.' I'm not challenging the error part and accept it whole heartedly. I may have been wrong at some places. But what really drives me mad is this department looking for 'cultural fit' and 'dynamic personality' on the basis of a home task assignment. How can they be sure that the candidate himself has written the assignment and not outsourced it to someone else? Trying to evaluate candidates personality based on a Home Task assignment is beyond weird to be honest. I must mention that the Recruiter was very kind and respectful throughout the process but there is something fundamentally wrong with this company and processes. Personally, I will not be applying for any other positions in this company henceforth. Not that the company cares but this experience has been very traumatic to me and my family and I do not wish to go through it ever again.