Probably one of the worst candidate experiences I've had in my career. 1) Had a reach out by recruiter after applying to the role. 2) Had a 30 minute call with the said recruiter about the role. Talked through my background (very superficially) then asked a few questions about the organization, process, timeline. Next step would be a chat with the hiring manager, I was told. 3) Had an hour long conversation with the hiring manager via video chat. Learned more about the role, the team. No difficult questions. No behavioral questions. Completely superficial interview where I sold myself but the hiring manager didn't get any more detail on my ability to lead teams, manage ambiguity, be strategic and/or recruit. In this interview I was told that I would move forward to the next stage which was a conversation with an HR leader. I was also told that the manager would be comfortable moving to offer very shortly after that. And, that the role was a perfect fit for my background. There was also discussion of my traveling to one of the HQs for an in person interview. 4) Didn't hear from the recruiter or HM for a week and a half following this. I reached out. Got an email back from the recruiter saying that the hiring manager had moved too quickly and that more people needed to be interviewed. Total change of tune from what hiring manager had told me. 5) Didn't hear from anyone for another 2 weeks. Reached back out to the recruiter and found out they'd moved forward with other candidates. A phone conversation with the recruiter occurred and several apologies did happen in that exchange - but it left me pretty speechless. I also am pretty dissapointed that the hiring manager never reached out to personally apologize. If the team at Spotify is going to continue to scale at "aggressive" speed and be able to actually achieve the growth that they're supposedly for - they're going to have to really work hard on candidate experience. If this is the experience one has to endure for a recruiting role - I can't imagine the kind of good recruiters and candidates that are falling to the wayside because of the poor management of this process.

I didn’t get the role, but I genuinely enjoyed the interview process. Everyone was welcoming and professional. The questions were thoughtful, and the process felt smooth, well-coordinated, and respectful throughout.