I interviewed for a Senior Test and Release Engineer role at Soraban, a Y Combinator-backed tax prep startup in San Francisco. Notably, Soraban’s job page: https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/soraban distinguishes between contract and full-time roles — this one was listed as full-time.
The process involved five stages:
- Recruiter screening. The job posting explicitly listed the role as full-time, and this was confirmed by the recruiter on the initial screening call.
- Hiring manager call with the Director of Engineering, followed by a take-home assessment
- Panel interview with the team
- CEO conversation
- Final call with the Director of Engineering
A few things stood out in the process. Hiring manager took over after the team panel interview and I never heard from the recruiter again. He asked for references before the offer stage and even scheduled a video call with the references I provided, which is not a common practice and required them to take time during working hours rather than handling it asynchronously. After checking references, he scheduled a call with me and offered to start as a contractor for the first 2 months.
This contractor arrangement came up for the first time at the offer stage. Hiring manager said that all employees start as contractors before being converted to full time employees, but that was never discussed earlier. I politely asked him to reconsider or offer a health benefits option since this had not been mentioned before and he said he needed to go back to the CEO/CFO for approval and would get back to me by the end of the day.
Six days later - with no follow-up - I received an email saying the role was being paused due to “some engineering process changes”.
The process felt like a bait-and-switch, with material terms introduced only at the offer stage after significant time investment from both sides - including references.
https://www.soraban.com/ #soraban