My experience with Donorbox’s hiring process was extremely disappointing and highlighted a lack of clarity, consistency and professionalism.
After 4 interview rounds, I was told that the team wanted to “move forward with an offer.” However, no information about salary, benefits, contract structure, or even a basic compensation range was provided — something most companies share upfront before asking a candidate to take any action.
Instead, Donorbox required me to shut down a personal side project that had no product, no activity, no clients, and no business operations. This project consisted only of a LinkedIn page and a domain with no functional website. After providing full transparency and confirming there was zero activity, the company asked me to deactivate the unused domain and unused email address as well. All of this was required before they would even share the details of the offer such as compensation.
Then, after stating they were ready to proceed with an offer, Donorbox introduced additional requirements — reference checks and a background checks without explaining what those processes involved. When I asked for clarification, no clear or direct explanation was given.
Finally, after I asked reasonable questions about compensation and next steps, Donorbox abruptly reversed their decision. They cited that they had:
“identified a few areas that gave us pause regarding overall alignment with our internal policies and expectations for full-time focus in the role… To ensure fairness and consistency across all candidates, we need to be confident in those areas before proceeding.”
This vague explanation felt completely disconnected from the previous communication in which they confirmed they were ready to move forward. At no point during the interviews were these concerns raised, nor was there any indication of a misalignment. I had already agreed to meet all their policies and demonstrated full transparency.
Overall, the experience created the impression that internal policies are unclear, inconsistently applied, or not well understood , decisions are made last-minute and reactively, candidates time and effort are not respected.
I invested significant time and complied with every request, yet the process ended with a generic message instead of an honest, straightforward explanation. Future candidates should be aware of the contradictions, shifting expectations, and the overall lack of structured communication exhibited during this hiring process.
