The process got off to a bit of a rocky start when I learned that they weren't hiring for what would in most companies be considered a Director role. Directors within the product organization at Fetch are instead senior-level individual contributors, and the recruiter was up front that any advancement into leading people could be 1-2 years out. I'm exploring both people leader roles and senior level IC roles, so, being a little conflicted about the positioning of a senior IC role as "Director", I asked if I could chat with the hiring manager to get a better sense of the company culture, the product organization, and the team's problem solving ethos. The recruiter and hiring manager both took my feedback in stride, and the hiring manager was great about explaining the product org and why the positioning of this role might be different from what most people would expect a Director role to entail. I expressed that I'd be happy to proceed with the interview process. Given my own experience hiring, I tried to give the hiring manager some helpful feedback about why the expectation violation might put off some candidates. The conversation went off the rails a little here as they got pretty defensive about their hiring process overall, including about aspects I hadn't even brought up in my feedback to them. In all fairness, the hiring manager may have misinterpreted some of my feedback since the entire conversation took place on LinkedIn rather than in real time. Regardless, I figured if we were experiencing communication challenges within the first moments of interacting with one another then my joining the team likely wasn't viable, so I withdrew my candidacy.