I applied through LinkedIn and was contacted quickly by the recruiting team. I completed a phone screen and then spoke with the hiring manager the next day. The conversation was informal and unstructured, which I appreciated, but it made it harder to clearly connect my background to the role’s specific needs in a focused way. Without defined questions or competencies, the interview can feel like you’re trying to guess what the interviewer is looking for and hope the right example comes up naturally. After the interview, I was assigned a take-home exercise. I did not receive an update afterward, and when I followed up four business days later, I was informed that the team would not be moving forward.