I responded to a job posting that was advertised on dribbble. Within a day or two I received a friendly and enthusiastic email response. We scheduled a conference call, then went through several rounds of phone interviews.
The people I spoke with were professional, welcoming, and really easy to have conversation with. The only red flag I sensed was a bit of lack of organization. For instance the security guy (or another subject matter expert) would often have to briefly educate someone else internally on the specifics of a question or answer. It just made me wonder why there wasn't more cohesion among the team. Not a big deal, just something I would have considered to be room for improvement.
They asked a broad range of really good questions. The questions were centered around graphic design as it pertains to UI creation, as well as development implementation and security. Security was heavily emphasized, due to the importance of maintaining the integrity of the system. I would consider this to be one of the most technical design interviews I've been through. They were clear to me that they needed someone with a combination of strong design and development abilities, because a graphic designer with no coding abilities would not be a good fit for their shop.
After our discussions it became more clear that the desired fit for this role was a combination of Software Engineer and Graphic Designer with dribbble-level talent. This is considerably more than just a UI Designer with HTML/CSS skills.
The last piece of the interview process was the salary discussion. We hung up from the final conference call and immediately dialed-in for a private discussion. I was asked what I was looking for in terms of salary, and they said they would make their decision in a couple days and let me know.
This was the last I heard from them. I didn't receive any feedback as to why I didn't receive an offer, or a confirmation that they hired another candidate. The entire process on their end was really professional until this point.
To the best of my knowledge, I'm pretty certain my salary request came as a surprise and was beyond their budget. Although throughout the interview process I was re-assured a few times that they "are not a low-end development shop".