I interviewed for a staff backend engineer role. I passed all interview sessions with positive outcomes. Then my recruiter said they'd extend an offer, but I first needed to select a team to join. They organized some team calls to introduce potential groups to me. After these team calls, I emailed my recruiter about my team choice, I said I am interested in team A and B, but I'm close to team B.
Then, my recruiter arranged a call, and she said I'll receive an offer for team A, and she'll send the numbers after the meeting. I said that my number one choice was team B, and I asked if there was a possibility of changing the team. My recruiter accepted my request; she said they'd re-run the offer process because they needed approval from different managers.
After a few days, my recruiter said that the manager of team B wanted to meet with me. I didn't have a team sell call with them because one of my interviewers was their director. I talked with the manager.
After a few days, my recruiter arranged a meeting, and she said that they decided not to extend an offer. Because the manager of team B didn't find me motivated for their team(he said I'm motivated for Datadog but not their team!), and the manager of team A also didn't want to progress with their offer because it seemed that I'm also not motivated with their team.
I invested three months; I had many interview calls; hiring manager PS, coding interview, system design interview, behavioral interview, technical presentation interview, and countless recruiter calls. And this is the outcome.
My recruiter said I should have been more direct about my team choice. But she didn't get confirmation from me about the team they prepared an offer. I thought that team calls were not interviews, I was not evaluated, but I assessed the team, which was not the case. My recruiter didn't mention the potential risk when I asked about the team change. In team calls, most of my questions were about the special team, not the generic questions about the Datadog.
I also have another FAANG offer, and I mentioned this to my recruiter; she said they might not match the compensation package. Ok. I know that, but the primary reason why I'm thinking the Datadog was the potential of being a more people-oriented company and providing a better WLB. I'm not sure this was why my recruiter didn't want to find another team for me.