I would call the interview process at best enlightening and at worst bewildering. Initially, I was reached out on LinkedIn by a current employee. They were direct and to the point, which I appreciated, during our initial call. They told me that there were multiple Operations roles that the company was hiring for but they did not share specific titles, JDs, or salary ranges. I took this to mean that the roles were not yet public and were subject to change. They told me that they were using our call to gauge whether I was a good fit for the senior position or the junior position without going into specifics. I was willing to engage with them despite this since I enjoyed hearing about the company and their work background. There seemed to be a mutual connection after the initial call since I was asked to complete a work sample and later spoke with a C-Suite executive. I received good feedback and had a very good experience overall. I was also told that I was being considered for the senior position, which I did not yet know specific details about. I completed all of the steps of the interview process with the CEO interview being one of the last. I became perplexed when the CEO started off the interview with them inquiring in detail about how my company was organized. After 10 minutes, they antagonistically stated that my work experience was not enough for the Director of Operations role. At this point, I was alarmed since I was not aware that I was being considered for a director level position given my previous discussions with the team. It is important to note that I was also not seeking a director position. I realized that there must have been a break in communication between myself, the hiring team members, and the CEO. Putting myself in the CEO's shoes, I could understand their frustration. I tried to politely explain the situation to the CEO and they hotly responded that they didn't "care what [name] told me." After reflecting and consulting with others, I should have ended the interview after detecting misalignment but I was unclear on the etiquette of walking out of an interview. The rest of the interview can best be described as a stress interview but I seemed to get back in the CEO's favor by the end of it since they mentioned that I was now a candidate for the junior position. The last I heard from this company was that I was still in the interview pipeline and a considerable amount of time has passed since then. Putting aside my experience with the CEO, interviewing with the rest of the team was a pleasant experience in general. I would recommend the company improve the recruiting and hiring process end-to-end by being upfront about job expectations (i.e. titles, duties, salary ranges, etc.) to provide a positive candidate experience, to align with leadership expectations, and to prevent future misunderstandings.