Overall a great experience! I felt respected and expectations were clear throughout.
I applied online late September and the recruiter reached out on LinkedIn. We scheduled a video call to discuss relevant experiences and interests, then I met with the hiring manager and later with a senior security architect to worked through a coding exercise.
That's when I got a call from the hiring manager, explaining that they like me as a candidate but since I was a more junior candidate applying for a new team, they wanted to hire a lead first to ensure I have a mentor and didn't just set me up to fail. I appreciated their transparency and thought it reflected well on the culture.
From then on, I remained in contact with the recruiter for 3-4 weeks, providing updates once a week. Once they found a lead, they asked me to do another interview and then extended an offer.
Their candor and transparency throughout this process really stuck out to me when compared to other companies