I was contacted by a Thumbtack recruiter. It was a standard process starting with a phone screen followed by half a day of on site panels. The questions were all framed with non-technical / cultural opener followed by a technical question. There was also an opportunity to ask questions after each round. Finally, I was invited back to talk about topics of my choosing with several leadership members of the company. My recruiter was very communicative, set expectations, and was able to answer all of my questions. The interview experience with Thumbtack was excellent, and the final reverse-interview round had a large impact on my final decision!

A recruiter reached out to me about several openings for a front end developer. She scheduled an in person screening with both her and an engineer on the team. When it was finally scheduled (about two weeks later), I met with her and the engineer. The engineer talked briefly to me about my experience, but we spent most of the time just talking about non technical things such as the company values. The next day, I found out why. Thumbtack actually didn't have any front end developer positions available. The recruiter let me know that they'd had a few other candidates arrive earlier that day and move onto the offer stage. So they completely wasted my time. Needless to say, it was a terrible interview experience.