Applied online on Okta page, but I had an interview with Auth0 team. Had an initial phone call with the recruiter. During the hiring manager interview, it was high-level behavioral questions. Once I received a positive feedback, they sent me a take-home assessment. The assessment was solving the problem through the link they provided (online IDE). It was very limited IDE, but it does enough job to write the code. The problem was after I submitted the code. Next day, I received an email from the recruiter saying the team is not seeing any of my code on their end. I checked the submission, and the code change wasn't showing, but in the history (snapshot), it was showing the progress where I could see my code in there. I talked to the recruiter about how the team can see it. The recruiter said he would reach out to IT team (I didn't like the sound of that). I sent a follow-up email regarding update but I didn't receive any update and ended up receiving a rejection letter instead. I guess they didn't want to deal with the issue caused by their end and ended up rejecting me. Very unethical and unprofessional.

The team, manager, and interview process were all great. But the very negative and insulting experience with the recruiter needs to be called out. The recruiter was initially really helpful and had an encouraging attitude and even gave me tips and I ended passing their phone screen and onsite. Then the recruiter comes back asking what salary I’m looking for. I mention that I don’t have a number in mind. I give her a number for a base and she starts giving me the ‘money’s not everything’ speech, which is honestly okay. But I then mention that I’m interviewing with other companies. Her tone changes and she says ‘you should have been transparent with me that you were interviewing with other companies’. She then says she’ll get back with me that day with an offer saying I’m the ‘top candidate’. I don’t hear back for a week. Then when I hear back, I get an exploding offer on Friday and get told to respond on Monday. I tell her I’ll be respectful of your time, but I’ll try my best on Monday since I’m waiting on other offers. Then on Monday I get a verbal offer elsewhere that’s much higher. I wanted to see if I could extend the deadline and negotiate, I call her and say ‘I want to be respectful of the team’s time. So if it’s not possible, I’m going to have to pass.’ The gap between salaries for my location was just too high at the time, but I called especially because she and the team had been so helpful in the process and I wanted to let her know. Then she flips and says, ‘You know, I don’t think YOU have been respectful of the team’s time, we gave you this competitive offer and all this time to make a decision and you told me Monday. So I think you not joining is probably for the best.’ Then abruptly hangs up on me. Confused, I send her an apology text message anyways, and of course I didn’t get a response. I put quite a bit of effort in this preparing. The interviews were pretty challenging. And again, the team, manager, and company were awesome, but the experience with the recruiter was uncalled for, and personally, I want an apology. I would love to share my experience with Okta/Auth0’s HR or recruiting staff of this unprofessional behavior directly.