The interview process consisted of four stages: a recruiter call, an interview with the hiring manager, an interview with a founder, and a trial week. Everything leading up to the trial created a very positive impression. During the interviews, they repeatedly emphasized that they conduct a trial week to assess whether the candidate enjoys working with the team and collaboration style, and whether the team likes the candidate. They stressed multiple times that the trial week is paid. However, when the contract arrived, I discovered that the payment was significantly lower than the potential full-time salary. Essentially a symbolic amount rather than fair compensation. I wanted to start on the right foot and, assuming good intent, signed the contract. Unfortunately, once the trial began, it quickly became a nightmare. Communication within the company is extremely poor, with everyone following their own processes for the same tasks. Despite help from three or four engineers, I couldn't get the development environment working properly in five days. The trial process bore no resemblance to their actual work culture: I wasn't invited to any meetings, wasn't introduced to the team, and wasn't permitted to deploy my code. Rather than evaluating mutual fit, it felt like I was hired as a freelancer to complete a specific project. Most disappointingly, one team member actively tried to sabotage my work. I maintained regular communication with the manager about my progress and promptly informed them that I might not be able to complete the project since I couldn't run the code locally. Their local setup is overcomplicated due to inexperience with microservices architecture. The system architecture is poorly designed, and the code within the services I needed to use is unmaintainable. After the trial ended, I got ghosted me despite several follow-up attempts. I even emailed the CEO directly, but also got ignored. I never received the promised $1,500 payment. The entire experience suggests they were looking for cheap freelance labor rather than conducting a genuine trial for a permanent position.