Yes, I had the smug joy of getting to tell my Google recruiter to f off back in 2014 because of a number of red flags in their interviewing process, very early in my career. I don't regret it at all, and actually my decision to simply take a short-term research internship at a DoE lab instead (and surprisingly) opened a number of doors in the startup world for me that I wouldn't have even known exist otherwise.

In my case one major red flag was "having to fly somewhere before I have an official offer", and I can only imagine the new zoomer crowd leans much more in that direction. FANG doesn't respect your time or effort at all, they think you should be honored just to be in their presence. That shit doesn't fly anymore.

Had somewhat similar experience... 2014/2015 maybe. Unsolicited call out to me, asking me to interview. I had a couple of questions - one of which included salary range. I was being expected to go take days off and fly to them, but they wouldn't give me even a basic range. Nothing. I declined to go further.

I told someone who then said "well... that's not the way you get a job!" And I said "but... I didn't want a job. They called me. They wanted a worker, but wouldn't do me the courtesy of basic information before I was to drop whatever I was doing and come running to them on their timetable".

On-site interviews are done by most companies. They require you to fly if you don't live in the area. This isn't a red flag for most people.

It's unheard of in the startup world. I don't even know anyone outside of the startup world anymore so I can't speak to whatever FANG and the remaining crumbling enterprise companies are still doing at this late hour.

Getting a free all-expenses-paid weekend in Mountain View is a perk to a lot of people

If I weren't busy with the familoids at home I'd love a free plane trip and fancy hotel stay. Er, in non-pandemic times at least

It can be nice but at the end of the day can be a massive inconvenience to people with dependents. Single parents, unless they have a good support network, might find it especially difficult.

I think the point is that many people _are_ busy with familoids. I took them up on this offer early in my career when I had less "adult" responsibilities, but as those tend to increase it makes this increasingly hard to deal with.

> If I weren't busy with the familoids at home

That + never ending pandemic + etc

But also, it's really shitty to fly somewhere only to get rejected. Been there, done that.