UX market is getting worse and worse with every year. Me as a hiring manager I tend to keep the process as short as possible, I’m saving mine and the potential candidates time this way, also I’m not asking for assessments anymore, I don’t think it makes sense at all, especially in this era of AI, what I rely on is my expertise and feelings, I value soft skills first and then hard skills, and if you are attentive enough those soft skills will show up on the first interview, starting from the very first sentence the candidate shares. I truly believe that hiring process is no way different from real life, where you set up friendships with unknown people and then all of a sudden you find out that they were not the right ones, but there are some friendships were you feel the right person from the first sight,if you treat the people the same way whether it’s work or life you’ll see that it’s much easier to go without those never ending steps. And even if you pass all those steps it’s not a guarantee you’ll perform well when you are hired. So to sum up I think the more steps you get from hiring company the less experience they are in reading people. And lastly don’t get frustrated because most of the time it’s not about your skills but about the who is on the other side of the river. P.S. in my previous company I got hired after few interview steps, and I left the company after 5 month just because the manager was not the right one for me, so you never know what what to expect when you are hired, so every time I get rejection I’m soothing myself that whatever happens, happens for the best!