I went through the process on Hired.com -- meaning the company contacted me. I spoke with the very pleasant internal recruiter first. She told me that I was basically pre-screened by one of their engineers. This was a really intriguing aspect. Besides being a robotics company that fit into an interesting niche, I had never heard of any other company doing this. This definitely earned the company a lot of respect from me! After talking about myself and some of my experience, as well as about the company and its product, I then spoke with the head of engineering, who is also a co-founder. We had a similar but more technical conversation. ----------------------- Despite the fairly relaxed conversation with both interviewers, there were several disappointing (but not unusual) aspects about the interview process. First, the recruiter was slow in advancing the process. I had to remind her about connecting me with the head of engineering. My interview almost seemed obligatory, as I saw that he had checked out my (relatively empty) LinkedIn profile, twice, and did not contact me. He did not seem to know that my first interview was on hired.com, as he had asked me how I found out about the company -- on hired.com, companies by and large contact you, not the other way around. But that's okay! I'm sure he had tons of other things to do, given that this was a very small company. So again, given the company is a growing start-up that is essentially juuust starting, I could understand the delay. The head of engineering told me he would talk to the engineers and get back to me. So far so good. ----------------------- Three weeks after my discussion, I received word that I had been passed over -- because I didn't live in the same state. Well, I can definitely imagine how that conversation went: Head of Engineering (to his engineers): "Hey Bob, Mark, what do you think of this guy?" Engineers: "Oh, nah, let's go to someone else -- he doesn't live in this state." It seems almost fantastical that an engineering team would pass over someone just because they live in a different state, especially given that my profile had been pre-screened. There is also the issue that I actually don't live in a different state. My profile on Hired.com consistently states that I live in the same state. My phone number indicates the same. I did possibly mention that I worked in a different state in a brief contract job (2 weeks). So OK, the recruiter was possibly confused. But okay, even though it was disappointing to hear this kind of thing, it's a small company (and they probably decided to collect a huge pile of resumes/applicants), so I gave them the benefit of the doubt, although my confidence was shaken. ----------------------- After the recruiter apologized for the error, she "circled back" with the team. At this point, she told me simultaneously that they had already started looking at other candidates. The next day, the recruiter informed me that actually it had nothing to do with them thinking that I "live in a different state", but that they had "candidates in the pipeline that better match the requirements of the role". That was really, really, super disappointing. That benefit of the doubt was really being stretched now at this point. Given my 23 years of programming experience (both amateur and professional), and a decade of experience as a full stack developer, that claim is highly suspect. What was the real reason? I'll never know. Maybe just wanted someone who had a few years of experience in Angular in an office environment, and weren't really looking past that qualification (among others, such as living in the same state). Fine. Just don't insult people and tell them that they're not qualified when they are -- what's the real reason? After reading an article that describes new discrimination against Russians trying to receive venture capital (because they are "hackers" who are going to steal your info and give it to Putin), it worries me. Another typical let-down of a process (and company) that I had high hopes for in the beginning. Maybe the next company I interview with will ask me to draw a giraffe. This has been a popular filtering method in the past, and since there are just so many developers out there, why the heck not? ----------------------- But wait, there's more. Again, I give people the benefit of the doubt. Hired.com contacted me a few days after the last message from the recruiter -- apparently, according to Hired, I mis-represented myself to the employer? They refused to give any details, however. Sad. Hired.com, the same company that a year ago, after being told that one of the employers on their platform was discriminating due to age (told point-blank over the phone), did nothing. Sadder.