Applied online. Got contacted in around 4-5 days. Entered my availability through an online tool and got a proposal for a first interview. - first interview: HR, general and very basic questions. The interviewer seemed friendly although a bit cold and did not seem to be very enthusiastic about her employer. - second interview: UX Designer. Again, friendly but seemingly bored. The interviewer asked very general and basic questions, requiring no deep dive or insight about the processes used in my projects (most of the time I just talked about it from my own initiative). He probably had a set of standard question through which he just when through. I was expecting more out of a UX interview. I got turned down with a very cliche HR answer. I requested feedback about their decision with no answer on their side, which was expected.

> Beginning: I applied for the position through Gitlab portal on Greenhouse and got a reply from a candidate experience specialist. > Discussions 1. A Zoom Call was scheduled as per process to get a basic fit understanding. The call happened and i cleared that round. 2. Other call with a designer was setup for few days later, this got postponed due to some personal issues at the interviewee's end. The interview happened on 29th November. > No Update After that, i waited for few days and then weeks, however there was no reply from the recruiter. > Untrue Information I followed up and after 2 weeks of delay i was told that they need Sr UX Designer and not at UX Designer. Strangely, for such a transparent organization, i checked the roles they are hiring for and their jobs page didn't list any such Sr UX Designer role then. I just hope that this was not intentional. Gitlab Values and Hiring process prescribe giving feedback in a specific format on Gitlab Handbook for Interviewing. I was very disappointed to see Gitlab not practice the process. As i qualified for getting feedback (candidates who have at least spoken to a team member can ask for feedback, per Gitlab Hiring Manual) > Asking Hiring Team to Give Feedback I pursued and then wrote to the hiring team at their given email if they can extract the feedback and get it to me. As this was few months later, their system had purged the personally identifiable information, understandable. The hiring manager was unable to get me the feedback. Overall the experience has been not so good with the expectations that Gitlab sets by going radically transparent. I hope that the team works and improves on the process.

I did four different interviews with 4 different people. They asked about my experience and work. One of the interviewees seemed unimpressed by my work and said "they were pretty screenshots" but he wanted to see more. I told him that the screenshots were all of live applications I'd worked on and my portfolio contains links to these applications as well. I was given a design test and rejected. Their design culture is very primitive at the moment and indicative of a lack of experience on the design team. No feedback, critique, or discussion as to why the design didn't work, just a rejection. I'm not amazing, but I know the design I created was solid. While they are very open about their hiring and interview process, transparency was lacking when it came to reviewing the test and with salary ranges for the position. I'd say a great company and people, but in need of hiring training and qualified decision makers.