Referred by a friend and received a rejection email within a few hours. Felt strange so I wrote to the TA and explained why I'm relevant.
The next day I received a template email asking for my availability for a TA screening call. I submitted my availability for a week and was quite flexible. I emailed the TA, thanked them and politely let her know that I had submitted my availability - no reply.
I updated my availability for the following week and emailed the TA letting her know that I had done so - no reply for the following few days and then I received a calendar invitation for a 30 minute video call, around 3 weeks after the initial referral.
The video call with the TA was the worst I've ever had. She showed up 5 minutes late and gave no apology or even acknowledged she was late. The call then lasted only 10 minutes, the first few minutes were the TA telling me why she thought I wasn't relevant, after which I presented my case as to why I was - which she yawned through and seemed to not even listen. Her mind was made up before the call began. I have never experienced such disrespect in an interview process before, it was a really poor representation of the brand. The most ironic part? I got to a final round interview 2 years prior for a similar role but didn't proceed because I accepted another offer. I didn't end that on bad terms though, I was honest throughout and respectful in rejection.
The meeting ended with the TA saying after 10 minutes that she would talk to the hiring manager and see whether they'd be keen to proceed (after 10 minutes!). Not a single intelligent question was asked, it was ridiculous.
Then, silence again. I followed up twice but not a word back for the following 2 weeks. In the end, I received a template email saying they weren't moving forward - I was not surprised but I was extremely disappointed with this process. The same TA from the previous interview cycle and honestly, poor experience both times but second time around was horrible.
Datadog is a company I've admired for a long time and this kind of brand representation was not expected. The worst TA interview experience I've had, full-stop - over before it started. What a shame!