"First interview was with recruiter. Was not a difficult interview. Very "Cold" interview.
Hard to connect when you are just being interviewed, leaving the human element out of it. None of the question asked about position were answered. Was informed these questions would be good for the hiring manager to answer. That gave the impression that opportunity would be available to present these specific questions to hiring manager.
Checked all the qualifications boxes regarding what they were looking for to fill the position. Not really sure why the initial meeting is not with the hiring manager. Puzzles me what the conversation is between recruiter and hiring manager on a phone screen. How someone who checks all the boxes is not even brought back for a second interview.
No follow up post interview. Reached out and even submitted some examples of research on ICP and thought process around cold outreach. Nothing. On second follow up. One sentence rejection. Politely asked why, and no professional courtesy. No response back.
You would figure showing some initiative and submitting some samples of outbound outreach and how research would be conducted for cold outreach would help. Did not win anyone over at this company. Hiring manager received a sample, however, was forwarded to recruiter, which was met with rude feedback.
After the interview experience, went back to reread company reviews. For a startup, the amount of bad culture reviews, pretty much solidified with the way this first interview went along with their follow up.
Would have been nice if the hiring manager had the professional courtesy to respond to the sample email, rather than forward it on to the recruiter.