Steps were a screening, 1hr with incumbent manager (the person that i would backfill), submitted exercise with no presentation or discussion, then 1hr with hiring manager. The interview with the incumbent manager was probably the worst interview of my life, going through every past job that i've had with the exact same four or five questions. This took the entire hour and I got zero information about the role. I used the remaining time to ask her thoughts about the somewhat concerning glassdoor opinion of the CEO and it was like I had just completely turned her world upside down. Exercise could be taken lightly or if you are like me you'll pour a whole day into it - it was two raw CSVs of support ticket data where you are meant to do an analysis and present some key findings. I submitted a nicely formatted two-page pdf (used their branding and everything) that even linked to an external metabase dashboard. Pretty sure they never looked at it and i'm 100% sure that the hiring manager never looked at it. The hiring manager interview step was much more conversational and she actually asked me if I could stay on the call for up to 1.5hrs. I could feel some good energy and she even laid out next steps for me which would be meeting the two teammates who would be reporting to me and then a final step with the ceo. She let me know that they need to get this role filled asap and I expressed that I am extremely flexible. Great - call ended and i felt like there was nothing i could have done better. 1.5weeks go by and the recruiter reaches out and asks if they can schedule some time with me to discuss next steps - okay, not what i was expecting, but maybe there was a change in hiring timeline, process, format etc. I go to book time on her calendar and I can't grab a slot until the next week. I wait the whole weekend and during that time some friends and acquaintances all agree that based on my steps so far, this is just some kind of change that they want to inform me of before proceeding. I jump on the call with the recruiter and it's just a heartfelt rejection, after now waiting 2.5wks since the last step and taking my foot off the gas with other job searching. Whole process took from early February to mid-march (over six weeks). I've received plenty of rejection and ghosting from other companies in the past few months, but this is the only interview where I felt it worth leaving a review. The whole process was bizarre, the employees felt like they were afraid to just speak their minds or be themselves with you, and then at the end of it all it was just a waste of time after being given a lot of false confidence (I was given verbal next steps that just never materialized).