ICs who have joined companies that seemed dysfunctional in the recruiting phase, what were your experiences?
Posted by anarchist2Bcorporate@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 39 comments
I am curious how strongly others weigh "dysfunctional vibes" in the recruiting/hiring process.
I have a company interested in me, but they also ghosted me for weeks before deciding to continue the process out of the blue. I don't want to get too specific, but there have been other communication mishaps as well. Company is a decent fit otherwise.
In general, working at a dysfunctional company feels like a minus. But I also am not sure how heavily to weigh this apparent dysfunction in hiring to the whole opportunity.
Even if the chaos doesn't extend to engineering (unlikely), feels like if they have a hard time getting people in the door, they probably fail to recruit more competitive talent through their own incompetence.
People who have taken opportunities like this, what were your experiences? Interested in ICs specifically, but welcome any perspective.
filter-spam@reddit
It can work the other way too: good interview vibes but chaos inside
emq__@reddit
Yup, it's a gamble; once had really great experience while applying just to quit after 3 months as company was a total sh1tshow; then again - it goes on both ends - it's nothing but house of lies xd
GOT_IT_FOR_THE_LO_LO@reddit
Sometimes if a company is too good at interviewing, it makes you wonder if they’re not focused enough on everything else
Famous-Test-4795@reddit
This is a bizarre take. It’s always a sign of being well organized and professional if they get back to you in a timely manner and if they treat you respectfully during the process.
kylife@reddit
Usually a sign of a revolving door/high attrition
451_unavailable@reddit
As a frequent interviewer; please just ask about the environment! I can't volunteer that the company is a dumpster fire, but I can honestly answer pointed questions in a way that reveals it to you.
we're just people, and some of us actually want to help you
(yeah I need a new job, I know I know)
dsm4ck@reddit
Ghosted for weeks could mean someone else got hired and quickly quit, presumably not because the job was too good.
GhostPilotdev@reddit
The recruiting process is usually a company at its most organized. If they can't maintain basic communication cadence when they're actively trying to impress you, imagine what happens when you need sign-off on a design doc or are blocked waiting on another team. The "ghosted then suddenly interested again" pattern usually means their internal prioritization is just as chaotic.
Commercial_Union_955@reddit
reminds me of when i left my phone on top of the car and drove off
ButterscotchSuch425@reddit
i had a similar ghosting experience before an offer
anarchist2Bcorporate@reddit (OP)
Yep. Not what they told me, but obv there is little trust in these situations.
😂
Cute_Activity7527@reddit
Joined bad company just to pay the bills after bad breakdown past covid. NEVER AGAIN.
I have now 1 year of expenses saved and invested just in case something like this happens again.
Dumb shmucks with no experience telling you how you should do your job. Every improvement faced with constant push-back. US workers afraid of layoffs digging hiles for you to fall into. Management not listening to Cloud Architect with 10+ years of proven enterprise grade experience in platform building. You know how to handle 10mil concurrenr users ? Fk that we have 20 users you cant comprehend that!!
TL;DR just dont bad companies hire bad ppl not only because of lack of money. They do have money, but culture, atmosphere and worklife balance is most likely shit. And worst - management is full of morons. Smarter ppl quit sooner or later, trash ppl stay long coz of no options.
rocketpastsix@reddit
Depends. How bad do you want/need the job?
anarchist2Bcorporate@reddit (OP)
Sustainably employed but could get a significant pay bump.
rocketpastsix@reddit
In this market? Man I’d be happy to have a job that doesn’t seem to feel like doom and gloom
anarchist2Bcorporate@reddit (OP)
By "sustainable", I mean in the context of this absurd labor market. Mandatory and tracked AI usage, vibe coding directors running amok, floundering proruct vision in trying to go "AI native".
But that's most places atm, seems like. I am not expecting better than that at any role I'm qualified for. So "sustainable" in that sense.
ultraDross@reddit
All sounds painfully familiar
CognitohazardMalaki@reddit
My (personal, limited) experiences so far show that a messy recruitment process usually leads to a messy project.
I got a 100% pay bump (wasn't even being paid below market average at previous job), a new shiny title in a much more well known company after around 4 months of interviewing stages (5 interviews mostly in the first 2 months), they'd ghost me for weeks then call back asking if I were still interested and that they were working on the paperwork.. I found a very messy process/project after I joined.
I think you just have to make up your mind on what you need the most at the moment, I sacrificed a good learning experience for money, and honestly if I weren't knee deep in debt I'd regret it.
Disclaimer: I'm not in North America. 4 YOE.
zicher@reddit
In that case, I'll take the job
d0rf47@reddit
This happened to me with my current job. Was lots of miscommunication and delays and thought I wouldn't get the job and the eventually I hear from the recruiter I got the job, but never got the offer letter and documents. The whole process from interview 1 to actually starting was almost 3 months.
The onboarding was also like this. The person on boarding me was from a different timezone other side of the world. The on board plan was 6 months. He was promoted to a new team after 3 months. During that 3 months we probably spoke a total of 10 times for maybe 30 mins.
The chaos is real for sure. It's a place where everyone always seems to busy to help or document thing unless it's putting out client fires.
Honestly for big tech, the whole thing is much more disorganized than I ever expected. I am sticking ot out as long as I can cause it's the best pay I've ever got, but I really dunno how long I will survive.
anarchist2Bcorporate@reddit (OP)
Do you feel like that chaos allows you to work at your own pace, or does it just increase the pressure placed on you? Sounds like the latter if there are consistently client fires to put out.
d0rf47@reddit
A bit of both, sometimes I'm blocked waiting on reviews or decisions from a pm and I can spend a bit of time digging into issues a bit deeper.
But there is a lot of pressure from c level now to increase productivity since we mass implemented cursor for all devs. Which doesn't help since the code base is huge and there's are 0 docs it can sometimes make things harder and slower tbh
Famous-Test-4795@reddit
I regret ignoring red flags when I have in the past. It pretty much was always a prelude to a bad experience. The way that a company treats you as a candidate isn’t so different from how they might treat you as an employee. At worst they don’t respect your time. At best, they’re completely disorganized.
Trevor_GoodchiId@reddit
I got stuck in an absolute Kobayashi Maru of a turd. Had to cover medical bills for a parent, so took on whatever was available.
- Their UX team consisted of art-school freshmen with no design experience.
- They tried to wrangle marketing out of devs.
- Their call center was staffed with manufacturing workers, with no additional motivation.
- At least 3 people in the open-space had overt personality disorders.
I have not seen a place as dysfunctional before or after. It was painfully obvious the place is not viable by the end of week one. It went belly up under a year.
Wide-Pop6050@reddit
What was dysfunctional? If the process is just a big chaotic, that can be due to a lot of factors and I wouldn't weigh it too heavily. I happened to recently go back and look at the hiring for my job and it was a little chaotic, meetings were rescheduled, some long waits - but the job is great.
Ghosted for weeks could be funding issue or someone joined and quit. You could ask them what happened.
Mundane-Charge-1900@reddit
It varies. I’ve worked for chaotic companies that had very orderly recruiting processes. I’d look at the whole picture of the entire job once you have an offer.
CompetitiveProof3078@reddit
Joined a company that made a few basic mistakes during my offer signing process, gave me doubts but given I was really unhappy with my existing employer at the time figured it was worth pursuing regardless
I was right to have those doubts, new company was a shit-show, started interviewing again 2 weeks after joining and resigned a few weeks after that
So_Rusted@reddit
hiring and then running out of money for salaries 2 months later
Repulsive_Gur_8761@reddit
the second sentence is a bit confusing
r_transpose_p@reddit
Is this company a FAANG? Cause I'm not saying which ones I'd expect to do that, but, ....
Practical-Piglet-933@reddit
Minor recruiting dysfunction (delays, confusion) often does reflect broader execution issues, even if engineering is somewhat insulated.
ICs who ignore it usually report higher friction later (process chaos, unclear priorities), so it’s worth weighing heavily unless the role/team signals strong structure and clear ownership despite the hiring mess.
effectivescarequotes@reddit
The very large company I work for now had big gaps between communications, but they were also upfront and said that would probably happen.
I will say that I wound up not enjoying my time at companies that gave me a bad vibe during the interview or hiring process.
Tall-Principle-1930@reddit
reminds me of when a company took months just to schedule an interview
effectivescarequotes@reddit
This one rejected my initial application instantly, contacted me six months later for an interview. Took me through the whole process and then hired for a completely different position. Now, I'm genuinely happy with my current job, but the journey was insane.
stayoungodancing@reddit
Had a lot of odd feelings during the interview process, of which they headhunted me. Just felt like there was a level of disrespect, distrust, and mismanagement.
Turns out I was very accurate. Worst place I could imagine, and then laid off later on after basically pushed into a dark corner. At least I pushed myself to learn tons in the meantime.
Sharpei_are_Life@reddit
If a company cannot handle recruitment well, the chances are that they aren't handling anything well.
Interviews are a two-way street. If a company is disorganized and unprofessional from the get-go, it bodes ill.
Odd_Perspective3019@reddit
your desperate level matches to what you take. I think it’s not worth it i once interviewed at a place where the manager asked me basic questions so i knew they weren’t smart i joined to get the firm on my resume but it was so much mental PTSD working under a bad manager no one respects them you can’t outwork them and in the end your team always looks bad if you have a bad manager so lesson learned to not waste my time working under a bad manager ever again
rArithmetics@reddit
To me I would be thinking how much I would mind finding a new job within 12 months. If not much, then it’s probably worth seeing if you like it anyway
demosthenesss@reddit
I've worked for two companies where the HR/interview process was a complete trainwreck and both were completely fine on the engineering side.