One of the worst experiences overall I've encountered from any recruitment process. Was left with a very bad impression about the company and its organizational culture.
I've had two 1:1 interviews, and it was the 2nd that was so ridiculous that it left me wondering if something was trying to test me, or is it really a place where I would never want to work at.
As it goes, a former colleague passed on my CV for the position. It took about 3 months to get a response - which I was lenient about, since I assumed they had high demand for the position.
After a short E-mail correspondence with the recruiter, I was set with a video interview with a peer PM, about 2 weeks ahead.
less than 24 hours before the interview, the interview was cancelled. It took them about a week to coordinate a new date.
Once we've managed to find a suitable date for another video call, the confirmation mail suddenly states it would be an on-site interview (with another PM, not the one from the original date). I needed to reschedule as it meant more time for the process, which took another 2 days to achieve as the response was very slow.
Arriving for the 1st interview, I realized I was meeting a 3rd person, not mentioned in any of the previous coordination attempts.
At first, I was a bit disappointed when I realized he wasn't a peer PM as expected, but was soon happy to learn he was a senior technical function, and more than that - he was very professional, knowledgable and efficient interviewer.
The interview was pretty standard discussing mainly around my background and experience, looking to focus on specific product related cases.
after a couple of days I was contacted by the recruiter to schedule a 2nd interview.
Shortly after talking to the recruiter, I've received an automatic survey mail asking how was my impression from my Video Interview. to that I replied I didn't have one, but a 1:1 interview which went well overall.
The 2nd interview was a different story. with fewer issues on the coordination parts, the interview itself was the issue.
I've been interviewed by one of the existing PMs. It already started off quite weird, as I was trying to make conversation on the way to the meeting room, but the person had her eyes on her phone, ignoring my small talk completely. no matter I thought, probably busy handling some emergency.
Even sitting down, she had asked me to sit very far away (on a 20 seats table - made me check if I was smelling bad or something. i wasn't).
Starting to talk, she was nothing less than rude. without going too much into details, enough to say that she answered 3 times to my own questions with "You are the one being interviewed here, not me". In case you were wondering, I didn't ask anything I haven't asked many times before or even had been asked myself when I was recruiting.
Going over the content of her questions to me, I've found them to be very unprofessional, as if I wasn't being interviewed to the position of a product manager. looking back, she didn't ask anything that can give her an impression if I am a capable product manager or not, and the only questions that made her raise her head up from the computer were ones that you ask a junior developer. There was no way she could tell from that interview if I am qualified or not.
I must add, that quite early into the interview I started suspecting if I was being tested - to see how I handle abusive behavior. With that thought in mind, I tried to remain as polite as possible, thinking it is either a test, or I do not want to work with someone like that.
After a few days I got a negative answer in mail, meaning her behavior was not a test - and I was relieved I would not need to consider working with such a person.