Pros:
The recruiter was fantastic and professional. Having said that, after three interviews a call to inform me of the outcome would've been more respectful than an email.
Cons:
There's a "mandate" to work in the office three days a week, yet the recruiter and one of the hiring managers work entirely remotely as they don't even live in the city. This starkly contrasts with the VP's claims that having people "on the ground," i.e., in the office, facilitates "collaboration" - how are these two 'collaborating' then? This smacks of a toxic culture where what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander, and some get special treatment.
The office, from what I saw in the background, looked like an uninspiring partitioned den that was the cheapest thing they could find with a 2000 postcode.
The hiring manager mucked me around. The panel were all too busy to commit to their own timeline, showing a blatant lack of respect for my time. When feedback was provided, it was completely baseless - I apparently lacked experience on something that they had not even questioned, nor tested me on (it was systems - I worked in tech, come on!). Instead, they got me to do a disorganised little exercise that they invented, and this exercise proved absolutely nothing other than that they couldn't even get it working themselves and therefore arrived 15 minutes late to the interview. Now who lacks tech skills?
There are a lot of negative reviews about their culture on Glassdoor, and the interview experience showed some serious red flags. Trying to break into the Australian market and having literally just opened in NZ, they aren't exactly hot on the heels of their competitors. The hypocrisy, lack of organisation and old school vibes will not see them succeed in this market.
I'm thinking I dodged a conservative and rusty old bullet here!