Everything was really cordial and loose until the final interview with management. HR forgot to notify me that I had moved on after the first round of interviews and I had to call them to follow up.

The first-round interview was great. It had a more casual, conversational feel to it than many other interviews I had in the past. The recruiter was clearly very knowledgeable and helpful in answering my questions regarding the nature of the work, pay structure, and what growth looks like within the company.

Applied Online. Recruiter reached out to schedule the zoom interview. Received an email saying how they prohibit the use of AI. Yet every question they asked me was scripted AI. I asked AI in advance what typical questions I should expect. Every question they asked was what I saw in AI. I detest behavioral questions as I'm just not the type to memorize answers and feed ppl with lame info. On 2 occasions, I was asked to clarify as I didn't give the precise answers they wanted. When it was my turn to ask questions, the recruiter completely flopped. Rambled and didn't come close to answering me. I did the same thing, where I said you didn't answer my question. What happened? Another incoherent word salad response. So you expect candidates to reel off perfect answers but you can't answer a simple question about your company....You can tell in the first 5 seconds this is a sweatshop. Very cold and uber structured process. So it sets a tone where they really don't get the best from you. They are very transparent, as they give you an offramp very quickly to say this isn't for me. But just like so many companies data mine candidates, we can do the same. It's like taking batting practice off a machine vs someone throwing 100 mph and then you get a changeup at 86. So I enjoy getting my AB's when I knew this place would never see my value