I spent two months passing 7 interviews only to be told that I am just a substitute in case the ideal candidates wont accept the offer. The interviewers didn't even look at my CV and they just glossed over the process as formality. I overlooked these red flags because the chairman is a supposedly respectable physicist who is a member of the French Academy of Sciences so I thought the firm must have a high moral standard. Turned out I was wrong and this is the most humiliating hiring process that I have undergone. Most candidates deny their offer due to low base salary so they have to mass interview surrogates, a cheap trick that not many hedge funds have to pull out. If you have no other options and are not afraid of wasting 2 months then give it a shot, you might end up getting the offer if no one else wants it. - First round: interview with a researcher: asking about your PhD and your past experience, no technical question in my case, just need to clearly explain what I have done. - Second round: technical test and presenting the result to another researcher. The test is quite easy. - Third round: a seminar where you present some of your research problems. Even though they say that the purpose of this round is to test your communication, presentation and general research skill, in reality they won't listen to you unless you have done a PhD in statistical physics involving a lot of numerical simulations. - Fourth to Seventh round: interviews with HR and different managers. The purpose of these rounds is to waste as much of your time as possible, they just repeat the same questions like "What do you know about CFM?", "What do you expect from us?", "Do you know anyone working at CFM?"...