Phone Screen with person who would be my boss
Technical interview with several others
Third round to check for culture fit
First two rounds went okay as did the third, then asked the key question if they wanted to continue to an offer and got the green light. Then it was 5-6 rounds of delays over the next 2 weeks going back and forth with the hiring manager about giving me an offer. To his credit he tried to keep me in the loop, but the repeated delays and date overshoots put a bad taste in the mouth. First it was they needed a couple extra days to get the contract sorted, I agreed, then nothing after those days elapsed so I pinged them, more delays, agreed to those then they passed, nothing at appointed time so again pinged, rinse and repeat. Clearly I wasn't a priority. The pay range given was X to X+20k so I had asked for X+10k. Finally they admitted they didn't have the budget so I put them out of mind.
Two weeks after the budget issue they came back saying they did have the budget and sent a formal offer in writing at my request.
The final contract had a lot of legal clauses I've never seen in any work contract before or since. Things like allowing them to use NIL (name, image, likeness) in company websites and posters post-employment. Things clearly to prevent repeats of being sued by contractors too. Oddly despite a Virginia HQ their contracts indicate Georgia jurisdiction for issues. The kicker was a clause that literally said they could modify the contract and I would have to accept any changes with no consideration or else it would be a breach. So if my job were substantially changed by contract alterations on their end and I were to refuse the changes, they could sue for damages as a contract breach beyond just terminating me. Overall a lot was broadly worded. For example a clause on works made for hire indicating anything ever made would belong to them, with 'limited to made during employment here' buried in the definition of work product many pages later (i.e. if missed it would be read as having no end date).
After consulting legal advice I asked if we could amend the contract to limit breaches to simple termination and tried to explicitly scope things like works for hire in clause vs relying on a buried definition. I didn't feel comfortable pushing some things to be completely removed. Response was a flat rejection with 'everyone signs the same contract'. Yeah, no. Negotiation and compromise are part of any business deal.
Red flags for those considering employment here (besides above):
Much of their tech support has been offshored to India
The codebase is largely JS slapped together with glue
Structure is small siloed teams for each client website, websites that are 80% similar 20% different
Open floor plan (no privacy)
Benefits on offer are basic: high deduct health plan (you pay 50+/period), 4wks combined PTO, no 401k match, crummy dental
Hybrid or on-site fully (a negative only if you prefer remote 100%)
My gut said to walk away so I did.