The first two interviews were conducted by the relevant team, who were straightforward and respectful. I'd also taken a writing test after this. The process had been generally positive and seemed promising until the third interview, which was conducted by the supervisor of the position for which I'd applied.
Some of the main things this person said to me were:
1. "We want to hire people who are invested in the company. We don't want it to just be transactional. Our staff has to love what they do. We've gone through a few waves of staff who just saw us as a stepping stone to something else but now we feel we have the right team of people." This seemed to be a roundabout way of saying employees were expected to dedicate their lives to the company, as if they were investors / stakeholders...which would explain the admittedly high turnover rate.
2. "I'm disappointed you didn't use our apps more. That's one of the foundational things we expect from candidates." This was after I'd already given feedback on one of the apps in the second interview and told him I want to learn more about crypto before actually signing up for a wallet and diving in. This betrayed an overblown sense of entitlement to what people who weren't even on the company's payroll did in their free time.
3. "I like your personality. I think that needs to come through more. I think what I'm seeing on camera is not who you really are. I can see your passion when you talk about what you like to do. We need more of that. But we can work on that." This was essentially corporate negging, i.e., when a prospective employer insults a candidate or offers them a backhanded compliment. Much like a pick-up 'artist', they use this manipulation tool to undermine candidates' confidence and make them feel inferior in the hopes they'll be eager to prove themselves — it's a tactic to see how 'hungry' candidates are for a job. A decent employer would not comment on an interviewee's personality, especially when interacting with them for the first time.
4. "We'll have a chat internally and maybe come back with something else for you to do afterwards." This was after I'd already been through three interviews and a writing test. This was basically more corporate negging — playing hard to get and making candidates jump through as many hoops as possible. What I've learnt is that the more hoops candidates must jump through, the less worth one's while a company is.