I had the absolute displeasure of interviewing for a marketing position, and here are some key takeaways from my experience. Everything I am posting here was told to me during the interview. 1) "We have over 300 applicants of which 100 are a perfect match of which 40 candidates are currently laid off" and the impression I got thereby was that this is a recruiters market and I am lucky to have a job. 2) "We don’t have time, and if things don’t work out, we will lay people off within 3 months in this role"- never has this ever been told to me by any employer in the past, specially not companies who pride themselves with people first as a value and showcase greatplacetowork as an achievement on the employer brand. 3) "Your current organization looks like a prospective client; tell me more about the organizational structure, the IT buying pattern, the decision making team, vendor evaluation metrics" 4) "The person we hire, “he” will should be able to produce in 3 months else we will let "him" go, even though I was a woman, and the pointed gendered pronoun clearly indicating that women may not be welcome to apply for this role The interview was 70% needs assessment of my current employer and 30% about how I should not be interviewing for this August role of an engineer even though it was advertised as a marketing management/ demand generation role/ there was absolutely no discussion around my experience as a marketeer, campaigns, marketing analytics, paid ads, content marketing, lead nurturing. An interview when done well is a learning experience even if one does not land the role. However, some interviews like this can be traumatic. I wasn’t at any point made to feel comfortable. I was constantly spoken over. Questions were asked and before I could complete my answer I was interjected and was told how my answer was incorrect in the most condescending manner. It felt less an interview to see if I was a fit for the role (that was falsely advertised) and more a discovery call to land my current employer as a client in the comfort of his office for free but at my expense. (time, money, effort) I am amazed as to how an initial screening by the recruiter which was respectful and professional quickly devolved into a third degree interrogation that intelligence agencies investigating criminals would be proud of. Life is full of experiences and this is an experience I would not wish on my worst enemy. P.S: I wonder if this is a concerted well thought out strategy to brand the company as a tough negotiator (low cost hire- to quote the hiring manager, there are so many laid off people) while hiring talent as opposed to the stated position on the ad for the role as an invitation for best in class talent to apply. I know I am not applying for any future positions at AOT technologies.