I've done analysis/case study assignments for interviews before, but this was the first time I did one before I even talked to anyone from the company. They seemed to be legitimate, growing quickly and I was aligned with their vision for last mile transportation. The assignment took awhile and I put a lot of effort into it. Probably took me about 12 hours to complete as there was a lot of information that needed to be researched, especially if you haven't been involved in the bike share industry. I'm assuming they liked the assignment (didn't get much feedback on it), but ended up going to the next round and had an interview with their expansion lead. I thought that interview went well. So they told me soon after that they would like to schedule me for 4 more interviews with other specific people and then finally the CEO. There were some scheduling conflicts naturally with trying to coordinate with so many people, but I tried to stay in touch as much as possible to make sure nothing fell through the cracks. 2 weeks later I spoke with someone from the company to coordinate the next rounds and I was told they would let me know the schedule for next week. Follow up 4 days later asking about when we could set up interviews that week only to get a response that they hired someone the prior week. ??? Look, I get you are interviewing other people. But not being kept in the loop, doing a large assignment, only to just get a rejection out of nowhere is not cool. Especially getting a generic rejection "please check our careers site for other opportunities". Please be transparent with your applicants. I've had companies let me know where I stand in terms of stage of interview and if anyone else was further along that may get hired. Not knowing anything and then just getting blindsided is one of the worst feelings.

The process took about 5 weeks. Included a recruiter screen, analytics testing, a hiring manager interview, 3 cross functional interviews, a case study assignment (1 week to prepare) and a final panel presentation and interview.