To give you some background and context, I am a UX Researcher with some design experience. I have been working as a freelancer for about 6 months. I have provided both research and design solutions to my various clients. I have the most experience in research and have formal education to reflect it. This UX Researcher position was part of the product design team so I was under the impression that I should have knowledge of the design process even if I am in a researcher capacity, to be able to communicate with my team. I was internally referred. It took about 2 weeks for the recruiter to connect with me. She was really nice and we had a great conversation. Within the first 5 mins she knew she wanted me to speak directly with the hiring manager (who by the way, is not a manager and is the only UX researcher in the company at this given moment). When asked where I was in my job search, I informed her I was in the process of interviewing at various companies (truth) and that I would appreciate timely communication as I was very interested in this position. I didn't want to hold out for weeks to get an offer/proceed to next round when I was already in the 2nd and final stage of interviews at other companies. We scheduled a call for the following week right then during our phone call and everything was set (high fives all around!). I found it odd that she was not great at following up (it seemed like she was really on top of things) so I followed up with her a couple days before my interview. I did not receive a email confirmation or even a response from her but nonetheless I blocked off the scheduled time, thinking maybe my phone conversation with her had been the verbal confirmation. I received a phone call from the hiring manager a couple minutes after our scheduled time. He sounded unprepared and annoyed that we were scheduled to speak on this day. I asked him if today was still a good time and he roughly cut me off and said yes like he just wanted to get it over with. He told me he was in the process of pulling up my resume which indicated to me he had no clue who I was or what my background was. It happens and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I proceeded to give him a quick intro which he seemed receptive to. I was grilled on every single research method I had ever used and for someone who genuinely seemed bored to have to speak with me, this interview lasted a solid 45 minutes. Even he was surprised with how long it went. Throughout the interview, he seemed cold, unreceptive and like he was firing off a set of pre-selected questions. You would think for somebody who asks people questions for a living, that they would do a pretty good job at conducting an interview. Sadly this was not the case. The interview ended abruptly, like he managed to look at the time and be like sorry gotta run. I tried my best to make a connection but he was just not having it. I sent a follow-up thank you email to the recruiter who again, never responded. About 1.5 weeks later I got a call from the recruiter. Her usual cheery, jovial tone of voice was quite cold. I knew I didn't get the job. I thought it was still quite courteous of her to call me personally to give me feedback. This was my favorite part though. I was told it would not be a good fit for the role because I had too much design knowledge. I can understand if I didn't have enough research experience or knowledge but I thought that was very bizarre given the job description. Anyways, I think it came down to personality and that I truly didn't connect with the person I would have to work with every single day. I was honestly so stoked about this company and I really thought I would be a great fit for the company culture (hence the internal referral). I wouldn't say it was the most terrible interview experience but there is definitely room for improvement.