My process was unconventional due to the way it was initiated. Therefore, it may not be representative of what most candidates go through. Therefore, keep that in mind as you are reading.
My first step was a casual conversation with the hiring manager, followed by a conversation with an outside recruiter. The conversation with the recruiter was akin to a traditional screening call. I then had a "formal" interview with the hiring manager. All occurred on different dates and spanned across three weeks. They ended the process the same day as the formal interview.
There were a few anomalies along the process. For example, I received multiple emails from two different people to schedule my formal interview, one from the outside recruiter and another one from an internal HR person. Each gave me conflicting pieces of information regarding the interview (i.e. "30-minute interview" vs . "45-minute interview", "email me your availability" vs. "please block off your availability on this shared calendar"). As requested, I replied back to the internal HR person with my confirmation. In a separate email chain, I also notified the outside recruiter with my selection. Later on, the internal HR person emailed me .asking for my confirmation AGAIN. I find conflicting messaging so early in the process to be sloppy. If you are unable to communicate consistent messaging to do something as simple as picking a date and time, then we have a problem.
My formal interview was fairly straightforward. I had an opportunity to ask plenty of questions. So did my interviewer. We wrapped up by going over the next steps.
Based on the steps that I was given, their process appeared to be fairly convoluted. I was thrown off a bit, because I had already spent close to three hours talking to people. The rest of the process appeared to be three times as long; technical assessment, panel interview ("culture" interview), technical deep-dive, and final interview with the CEO.
I received an email a few hours later from the outside recruiter, informing me that they decided to discontinue my process. Kudos for fast decision making, but I also found the timing to be a little alarming. As I mentioned above, the interview was fairly straightforward. I am confident I did not say anything that would have caused a recruiting team to abruptly end my process. Therefore, I assumed that they had already decided to discontinue my process prior to the interview but spoke with me either way. I was a little surprised, since I thought I was absolutely qualified for the job, but it is what it is. They know their needs better.
My conversations with the ID.me staff were pleasant. They are respectful, ask good questions, and appeared to be transparent. However, I found the outsider recruiter to be a little aggressive. They didn't have the subject matter expertise, yet they attempted to educate me on particulars. Furthermore, there was a "whiff" of belittling due to the professional environment I would be coming from (e.g. things move slow where you come from, here we are moving at light speed), showing ignorance of my current job requirements.
