I reached out to the recruiter 8 days after my application submission via LinkedIn DM The recruiter replied to me in about 10 minutes and wanted to have a call with me right away. This was the first red flag I had -- it feels like they didn't actively manage their recruitment pipeline and assumed candidates were passively waiting for them to become available.
I had the call with the recruiter the next day and passed the initial recruiter screening.
When I had the follow-up call with the hiring manager, the experience was not at all pleasant. First of all, the hiring manager was late by more than 15 minutes; secondly, the hiring manager brought a sandwich to the interview and ate it during my self-introduction. The entire opening already sent the signal that she didn't want to be there for the interview.
After my self-intro, she asked me a highly hypothetical question based on no context. When I asked for context, the answer was delivered in a very brief, impatient manner. As the interview went on, the questions became increasingly random, with little relevance to the project's context.
Before the interview with the hiring manager, I asked the recruiter what the interview would focus on, the recruiter told me it would not be with the hiring manger yet, it would be a peer interview and the format would be more of a chit-chat style. The focus would be on the situations in the project.
So, obviously, the participants in the hiring process didn't align internally.
I didn't hear back from the recruiter after the interview, and I didn't chase. Because I already knew I didn't want to work for such an organization.
I understand that sometimes a candidate's profile isn't convincing enough to be shortlisted immediately, and I could have been that candidate. But even if that's the case, I expect transparent communication and some mutual respect. As a candidate, my time isn't less valuable than the hiring manager's, and that was literally the first time in my life that I experienced someone eating during an interview and acting so unprofessionally.