After email contact with their recruiter, they sent me three coding tasks. The first two were trivial; the third was time-consuming and did not present an elegant solution but was also straight forward. Since I already work for a living, it took me two weekends to pound out the programs. Though they said, "ideally in Python", I implemented them in my language of choice. After a week without so much as an acknowledgement from the recruiter, I tried to follow up by email twice over the following weeks but received nothing in return. I've been in the bioinformatics field for nearly 15 years plus 5 years as a software developer for a government contractor, so I know there was nothing wrong with my code. I consider their failure to even acknowledge receipt of my programs highly unprofessional. The whole exercise was a waste of my time. I don't know if this is the situation with ArcherDX but I will float a theory based on previous experience. Some companies, particularly small biotech start-ups, often have PhDs with only a few years of experience running their bioinformatics departments. They are in that position because the biologists that run the company don't really understand bioinformatics. Those Bioinfo directors have a good thing going and they are not willing to recruit seasoned professionals that may be 10 - 15 years their senior because, in their insecurity, they are afraid of hiring their replacement or even running the "risk" of being upstaged by a subordinate. The most important lesson *I* learned when I was in that position (of being a junior director) was that hiring really good people ultimately reflects well on the person doing the hiring. In fact, so long as the salary discrepancy is small, the older recruits are probably happy to be doing the fun, hands-on work, while their nominal boss is doing administrative chores. Sure, if you really bugger things up, you might get replaced but more likely than not, you can learn from your staff while accruing management experience which you can parlay into an even better position at another company. The truly incompetent will be discovered in a year or two; trying to protect your position by only hiring your inferiors will only forestall the inevitable-- and probably torpedo your career prospects in the process.