I met several members of the Pillar team at various events. The COO asked me if I would be interested in coming on board and we discussed salary, notice period and role particulars. At Pillar Project you are expected to work for free for a period of time prior to joining, in order to demonstrate value. I volunteered what i could of my time (given I was also working a full time job), but I was put on tasks which were not relevant to my role (e.g. writing user stories for QA testing...). I fought to be able to demonstrate some actual value to the company relevant to my role by delivering some hands-on usability testing training, to around 7-8 individuals in the company. After the training, I received excellent feedback from everyone but the COO told me they had decided to hire someone with no prior experience because this person was available now (this person had been in the training I delivered). I gave my own feedback that hiring whoever is available, instead of the right person for the job, is not a good business strategy, and he agreed. The COO then asked me to come on board and provide some freelance consultation, so I sent my proposal over to them and never heard from the company again. This interview process was a real waste of my time, especially as I feel I was manipulated by some bad actors in the company into giving just enough training for the person they already had in mind for the job, while pretending I was still in contention for the role. I have since accepted a role at a different blockchain company, who seem to value talent and not mess people around.

Pillar Project operates in a way that demands applicants to a role work for free for the company prior to being hired. I was asked by the COO about pay expectations, notice period etc, and told that I need to show some value to the company before they could make an offer. I volunteered what i could for the company (given i also had a full time job at the time), but was put on tasks that were not relevant to the role I was going for (e.g writing user stories for QA testing...). I fought to demonstrate the actual work I would be doing by running some hands-on usability testing training for 7-8 members of the team. After the training I was told there was excellent feedback from everyone who attended, but that they had decided to hire someone with no experience but who was available immediately (and who had been in the training). I fed back to them that hiring whoever is around, instead of people who are right for the role, is not the key to business success, and the COO admitted he saw this was a mistake. I was then asked if I could provide some freelance consultancy to the company, submitted all that info, and then heard nothing back from them ever again. The whole process was a real waste of my time, I feel like i was manipulated by some bad actors in the organisation to provide what they felt was "enough training" to someone who they were going to give the job to anyway, and disguised this as a sort of interview stage for me. I have since taken a role at a different blockchain based organisation that truly values talent and has not asked me to provide free work.