IMO, this is 100% typical. I counsel people getting started in the industry all the time that public reputation of a company is actually inversely correlated with practical working conditions there.
If there are 500+ more great engineers itching to get every open position, what incentive does the company have to pay well, have a smooth and respectful hiring process, treat employees well and respect their personal time, etc? Incentives guide outcomes far more often than any principles of niceness and fairness. They're often actually incentivized to do the opposite, especially in hiring. So what if we jerk people around and ghost them randomly in the hiring process? The only result for them is a slightly less unmanageably huge pile of applicants. If anything, it improves the applicant quality from their perspective - they're filtering out people who have standards and self-respect, who would probably just leave later anyways when you start treating them badly, and keeping the people who will stick around for any kind of abuse you dream up.
If you want to be happy, get a job at a boring-sounding company that nobody has ever heard of. Far more likely to have good hiring practices, pay, and working conditions. People being impressed by the name of your employer only really lasts a few seconds anyways.
If there are 500+ more great engineers itching to get every open position, what incentive does the company have to pay well, have a smooth and respectful hiring process, treat employees well and respect their personal time, etc? Incentives guide outcomes far more often than any principles of niceness and fairness. They're often actually incentivized to do the opposite, especially in hiring. So what if we jerk people around and ghost them randomly in the hiring process? The only result for them is a slightly less unmanageably huge pile of applicants. If anything, it improves the applicant quality from their perspective - they're filtering out people who have standards and self-respect, who would probably just leave later anyways when you start treating them badly, and keeping the people who will stick around for any kind of abuse you dream up.
If you want to be happy, get a job at a boring-sounding company that nobody has ever heard of. Far more likely to have good hiring practices, pay, and working conditions. People being impressed by the name of your employer only really lasts a few seconds anyways.