The initial recruiter screening lasted around 45 minutes, which felt long for a first-stage conversation. The structure was quite informal and not very focused. The first 10 minutes were spent with the recruiters talking about themselves and their hobbies, which didn’t feel like the best use of interview time. There was also a strong emphasis on the company being in a scale-up phase, with repeated mentions that things are currently messy. While helpful context, it came up frequently. Overall, the process felt unstructured and less professional than expected for an initial screening.