tl dr I went through a 2 month interview process for a Product Manager role and got ghosted at the end. While the data science and engineering teams were really knowledgeable, nice, and professional during panel discussions, the overall hiring process was poorly managed and unprofessional. After receiving a verbal offer, I asked to meet the team and I made a counteroffer after about 1 week. I thought it was a reasonable offer of $15k signing bonus for a product manager role. Apparently, my compensation request was non-standard and triggered lengthy "approval processes" that suggested unclear budget authority or decision-making capabilities. I experienced 2 weeks of delays. I reached out twice to the recruiter and only to get 1 sentence responses. Despite being told to expect news "by week's end," this was followed by continued silence and poor coordination between recruiting and the hiring manager. The process ultimately concluded with an automated rejection email after 3+ weeks of waiting, which felt particularly disrespectful given the time investment from both sides. Overall, the communication gaps between departments and inability to manage basic timeline expectations during hiring raises concerns about what working there would actually be like day-to-day and how they treat their employees. If they treat candidates this way, it makes me wonder how they treat their current employees and the level of leadership and coordination. On the positive side, the technical team members I met were competent and collaborative, and the AI/data science function appears to have genuine capabilities with interesting projects. However, based on this hiring experience, I would caution other candidates to be prepared for extended timelines, poor communication, and organizational dysfunction that may reflect broader internal operational challenges.