1) I initially applied for the junior role, HR reached out to do a basic screen. During the call, they mentioned that I actually might be overqualified for the role given my history (going so far as to call me a "diamond in the rough" because of a role at a former employer) and suggested they refer me to the senior position. That sounded cool to me, I was a bit skeptical but trusted their judgment, and confirmed I could still be considered for the junior role if that fell through.
2) Video interview with two members of the analytics team, who asked me a bit about my background and gave me a basic task. The call was rescheduled to later in the day and it was pretty evident that they weren't engaged, which stood out to me in contrast to the extremely encouraging first screen. I presented my answer to their assignment and answered a few questions about my approach and that was it. Not a particularly robust discussion and they signed off. Followed up a couple of times with HR but was ghosted.
Abandoning conversations like that in job searches are far from rare, but leaving candidates hanging with no explanation should be avoided, especially if the initial interactions are so encouraging. The task part of my interview (and lack of comms thereafter) coupled with an older interview documented on this page suggests that employers might just be posting roles on a cycle and mining candidates for ideas on actual internal work, which is truly terrifying. Hopefully that's not the case.
