I just went through the most unprofessional and disrespectful interview process where my offer was ultimately revoked after almost no communication and after being repeatedly lied to by the CEO. The recruiter later told me the CEO had already interviewed 20+ people for this role and after this, I can see why.
The interview process at Levee was the worst, most unprofessional nightmare I've ever had in my 20 years of working in startups. I was lied to numerous times by the CEO who treated me with utter disrespect throughout the process, especially considering I was going to be the most senior technical position at the company. In the end, they rescinded my offer with no rhyme or reason given after initially lying about the reason. I cannot stress enough that I would never work at Levee or would ever recommend anyone else work there.
I first met twice with the CEO. We hit it off very well and things went smoothly in both interviews. The 2nd interview was on a Friday where he extended me an offer contingent upon two fit interviews and reference checks. We scheduled my first interview with their Chief of Staff on Monday afternoon.
So on Monday, I got in the Google Meet…….and she never showed up. After about 15 minutes, I sent an email kindly asking the CEO if I should stay or go. He got back to me rather quickly saying their COS person had cancelled the interview and sent me a note and asked if I had received either. I triple checked my email and I had not received any note. Furthermore, the calendar invite was still on my calendar. I gently responded to the CEO that I had not received a note, but said no big deal, let's reschedule.
That's when things got weird. I heard nothing from the CEO until mid-Wednesday (2 days later) when he sent an odd email to the CEO of the recruiting firm saying they were going in a different direction despite my being an “excellent” candidate since they “could not meet my timeline.” Taking two days to respond after a missed interview on their part had already set off major red flags for me. Can you imagine how we would be treated if we missed an interview and then ghosted a company for two days?
The recruiter and I were both very confused. We quickly both fired off emails to the CEO letting him know that of course my timeline was flexible. But for me red flags were going off everywhere.
Another 24 hours went by with no response from the CEO. The recruiter was extremely confused.
The recruiter finally heard that they were passing on me, with no explanation. The only plausible explanation was they found out something about me probably either unethically or illegally and could not share it with the recruiter.
I reached out to the CEO, rather forcefully asking why they were passing on me. His response was again that he couldn't meet the timeline, which was a bold faced lie considering we had made it clear that the timeline was flexible.
Clearly, the CEO was lying about his real reason for not wanting to hire me and did not want to divulge it because it was either probably illegal or unethical. Ultimately, rather early on I decided this was a company I would never work for as they treated me entirely unprofessionally, with complete disrespect and disdain, lied to me, and wasted a huge amount of my time. I cannot recommend anyone interview with or work for Levee.