They got in contact quickly with me after I applied and gave me a project to do. After I submitted the project, they waited a few days and informed me that they decided to not move forward.

I hope this encourages the Duolingo recruitment/talent team to reevaluate, reassemble and do better. I did not make it beyond the initial call with the talent acquisition person. I respected their professionalism but was disturbed by the lack of knowledge they had about the role I was applying for. I seriously believe that this person is single-handedly responsible for not getting exceptional talent through the door due to their own ignorance on many subjects. While recruiters and talent acquisition specialists are not always subject matter experts, it was deeply disturbing to have been asked how my experience was transferable when I not only had a degree in what I was applying for, but direct experience which I listed carefully on my resume. The only things that differed from what they were looking for were previous titles and even then—slightly. This person deliberately asked, “How does this reflect what we need?” I would like for hopefuls to understand that not being selected here is not example of your skill or quality. While extremely competitive, having experienced first hand the lack of knowledge of someone responsible for presenting candidates, I can 100% say that you are more than likely not appropriately being considered due to this particular person who is responsible for a large amount of roles.