I initially applied for a Senior Developer role online, and was contacted by email within a day or two by an HR Recruitment Consultant. I reached out to him via phone and had a brief but cordial discussion regarding my background, why I was looking to relocate, why I was looking to enter another industry (healthcare), etc. It was a very pleasant experience. Afterwards, he sent me the official application and a fairly in-depth questionnaire asking six questions. None of the questions were difficult but a good candidate answers them in a detailed manner. That took 2 days, mostly to complete the application. After the Recruitment Consultant emailed my files to the Hiring Manager, I received word back from him 5 days later that the Hiring Manager was impressed with my questionnaire responses. I figured at that point that I'd be able to do an in-person interview to get an idea what the salary range, relo assistance (if any), specific day-to-day tasking would be like, etc. Instead, I was asked to complete a lengthy technical exercise that involved the creation of a user authentication solution. This was not hard, especially since I already have a very good one on my own site and could reuse some of the code. The turnaround time was 2-3 days and, admittedly, I went way above and beyond what the exercise called for. However, this was again more time, and this project required me to use software that's only installed on my work system for a quick turnaround and an accurate result. (All of the other apps, like Visual Studio, I have on my own system.) I just couldn't justify that so the data model was not completed. The code solution was amazingly detailed, though. Any good developer could read through all of my comments to get a feel for how the provider model worked. A week later I heard back from the Recruitment Consultant. Again, a great guy who took the time to say that they were pursuing other candidates. The only two things I can think of that were the problem was my location (I'd have to relocate) and the fact that I didn't submit a data model. It definitely wasn't the code, and quite frankly I felt like I was doing a homework assignment for a PhD candidate again. (If you've ever been in grad school in Computer Science, you know exactly what I mean!) I partially blame myself for not asking what the salary range and relo benefits were up front, so that I didn't waste days of my time doing this assignment. There's no way I would have done any of this unless the pay was significantly above what other markets are paying. And I will definitely be asking about the entire interview process on any future positions in the healthcare industry. In summary, I learned a lot throughout this process and regard it as one huge lesson learned.