Contacted by internal recruiter and went into office for a screening interview, followed by a technical interview/CV check and another interview with a VP the same week. I also had to pass a 3-4 hour Spark question set on the RDD/SQL/ML API that was set online via a databricks notebook. All of these went fine and felt it was rather pleasant. The problems started with two additional interviews to the US. One was with a guy working the same role as I was applying for, the second was with a VP. Both tested me on my Spark knowledge and work history. The VP didn't show up to two of the scheduled interviews, which had to be rescheduled at my expense (and given the time difference, it was always in the evening/night). After all interviews had completed I was told that I had good feedback, though they wanted to change my role to something slightly different (I said that was OK). I was invited back into the office to talk about it more, and I met with a senior staff member from the head office who explained their EMEA plans, and since my interviews had gone well, and we discussed compensation options. He said he would chase up head office and that I should expect an offer in the following days. A few days later I emailed the recruiter to get a status update and I received no reply. I sent two follow up emails the following week, when I finally received a reply to say they wouldn't be moving further with an offer after all. The whole experience has been rather unpleasant, particularly since I was left in limbo towards the end for so long. I would strongly recommend against applying unless one has plenty of spare time, and is OK with long periods of silence. I suggest holding off on databricks in London/EMEA until they get their act together and can operate their recruitment process a little bit more professionally.

1. recruiter initial chat 2. technical screening video call 3. technical screening with Director 4. Take home test on spark (SQL, Dataframe, optimization, ML) - almost 25-30 questions to implement 6. Technical Engineering 7. Client Delivery Experience 8. Behavioural Interview with Director 9. Role Alignment discussion with VP 10. Reference Check 11. offer negotiation