This was definitively the strangest phone screen I ever had: instead of offering to explain the company and the product, it went the other way around. Initial phone screen was going fine, just like any other phone screen for a software engineering position, until the HR interviewer decided to finish the interview "for now" because I hadn't learned enough about the company. I was supposed to research things (what things?) about the company and re-schedule the call "after I got to know more about the company".

My first interview with their HR recruiter made me give up applying for a position at Smile.io. The beginning of the conversation went well, but then it took a weird turn when she requested me to describe to her reasons why I thought Smile.io was so great, awesome and why I'd want to work there so much while giving me a bleak picture of the company or what it does. Without the said accolades, she recommended that I went back and thought of ways I could praise the company, I withdrew my name from consideration right away concluding that Smile.io would def not be a good fit for me.