It is widely agreed in the community that Red Hat is a company with decent projects and a joke of a hiring process! To cut a long story short: Just don't do this to yourself, it is such a waste of time!
I was interviewed for 2 teams(and I technically passed all interviews), over 8 weeks I met at least 12 engineers + managers + recruiters. Everyone, apart from one recruiter, lacks the basic interview and hiring skills and has zero respect for the candidate's time.
For the first team, I was engaged in a time and effort-consuming process(technical assignment + discussion + 3-panel interviews). I passed them all, and I got very positive verbal and written feedback. I was expecting to get an offer by the end of the week. But they declined due to lack of budget to hire a resource in North America :D
Even worse, one of the recruiters(for the last stage) didn't show to our call and seldom answer emails until I escalate him to his(competent) colleague.
For the 2nd team, I was engaged in a shorter process. They kept telling me I am the front runner and I should hear a decision soon. For 3+ weeks, they kept giving a lame excuse after the other to postponed(the director went on unplanned vacation due to the loss of a family member, extra).
When I realized something not cool is probably happening in the background, I sent an email sharing my thoughts about the unfortunate events I am experiencing, and then they decided to " won't be proceeding with an offer at this time. They spoke with another candidate who they ultimately felt would be a better overall fit for the team".
My impressions are that it was either/combination of:
. Total lack of hiring skills and respect to candidate's time
. I was the 2nd in line, they were putting me in the "freezer" until another candidate accepts the offer.
. It was a formality, they just wanted to hire somebody they know from the open-source community.
. Not hiring me was based to do with whom am I. My name, location, ethnic/linguistic background, contribution to the OSS community, or whatever else.
But again, those are just my impressions and I don't have data points. So I will stick to the only fact: Being interviewed with Red Hat with no prior strong OSS contribution to the company's repo is such a waste of time. And the recruitment process is one of the worst compared to all Tier A & B companies.
I will end up with a quote from another glassdoor review:"met people I already knew and joked around with them talked about the world, talked tech, you know all that fun stuff, and then commented on their big red hat" Apparently, this is how (some?many?) people are hired:)
