I've been through well over 100 interviews, and have conducted numerous interviews, and must say that this was the worst experience I've ever had. 8x8 was clearly disorganized, irresponsible, and unethical.
A recruiter reached out to me for a Product role. I was reluctant to interview after seeing the Glassdoor reviews (at the time they ranked around 2.7 but since increased their score with blatantly fake reviews) but agree to a call. The call went well, so I was invited on-site.
The on-site was quite a trek, as they knew I live in SF and had to come to San Jose. They scheduled over normal lunch hours but provided no lunch. They also provided me with the wrong office. Luckily I arrived early enough to figure it out.
The recruiter also knowingly lied about the length of the interview, telling the me actual length as soon as I arrived. I've seen that a few times and never understood why recruiters do that. It's like they want to assure candidates of a shorter interview to get candidates to come, but it immediately leaves a concern of trust.
When I arrived they also told me that there would be a second round of on-site interviews. Common etiquette is to only hold one round to be conscientious of the applicant's time - especially if they know the candidate has a long commute, and is a consultant paid hourly, and losing over $1000 in opportunity cost for an interview like this. The recruiter intentionally withheld this information to get me into the first interview.
Two on-sites later, the recruiter calls, harrassing me for my past and desired salary. This is now illegal in California, as it's a tactical to get a lower salary by the employer, and not a wise idea in a market for competitive talent. All companies ask for some information, but only a small handful of unethical recruiters I've encountered try to require it, and have multiple, unscheduled calls to try tricking the candidate into sharing this information.
Their initial offer was exceptionally below market. In fact, their base salary was below what I've seen from early, seed-funded startups. And the equity was submitted par for a company at their stage. The recruiter actually told me, adamantly, that startups pay more than public companies because they have to make up for their equity being more volatile (clearly an on-the-fly excuse, but the recruiter was adamant). This of course is not true, and the recruiter should have agreed to just take time to discuss matters internally.
Eventually they came to another offer that was still below market but not offensively low. At this point I was beyond disinterested, and further disinterested as the recruiter sent me, by surprise, and offer on a Monday, with a deadline to accept within 3 days. This is considered another highly unethical business practice. I know many Venture Capital investors who say to immediately decline and offer from any company that does this.
But it didn't stop there. The unscheduled calls by the recruiter got worse. More than a dozen calls, texts and emails came in, with paperwork that I needed to handle immediately. They went with a cheap third party to check references, backgrounds, etc, so the experience was inefficient and took up over 8 hours of my time (no clue why I did this as I was beyond disinterested at this point).
All the while the recruiter was rude and demanding, complaining that one of my references, a founder of a company worth over $500 million, didn't respond to her withing 3 hours of her email. She was bothered when I politely explained that he's busy and will likely need at least a few days.
The hiring manager also wanted to talk with me, and with minimal notice. That Monday, I got on a call, but he was in a car on his cell phone and I couldn't hear him. I was on landline and VoIP (tested multiple phones with him) and he still blamed me for the issue. We tried to schedule again, on short notice. He had minimal availability and Iwas not going to cancel a meeting I already had made weeks prior. I informed him, clearly, that I would call a few minutes late. I called him within 5 minutes of the planned time, and he didn't pick up. I emailed him offering for him to call me, or to reschedule. He complained to the recruiter that I was being flaky.
After more unscheduled calls from the recruiter before 7am PST, I decided to end this, but as I clearly pursued that, the recruiter instead said they were withdrawing my application, to cover this up and blame me.
I'm just glad I didn't join. If you read the real Glassdoor reviews, you'll see how they're doing.