Having worked in the software industry for eight years, I found this to be one of the more unusual interview experiences I've had. The panel consisted of a few engineers and two senior managers from their US headquarters. For the majority of the interview, only one junior engineer engaged with me, asking a series of basic to intermediate C++ questions. The rest of the panel remained mostly silent until the final 10 minutes. Toward the end of the technical discussion, the same engineer began posing more challenging questions, accompanied by a somewhat odd smile, which made the interaction feel more competitive than collaborative. In the last part of the interview, the senior managers asked questions that felt somewhat out of place and personal, such as why I hadn’t returned to a previous employer or why I wasn’t considering an academic career. These questions made the conversation feel less like an evaluation of my technical skills and more like critisizing my career choices. The most surprising part came when I received feedback through the recruiter. The managers claimed they had asked me about certain topics that were never actually brought up during the interview! I’m glad I chose not to move forward with the process, as I believe in maintaining a respectful and professional work environment—and this experience did not reflect that.