I only spoke with the recruiter, who asked one question: "Walk me through your resume." I did, and there were no follow-up questions from her. I later received an email stating that I was not moving forward, and when I asked why, I was told I didn't demonstrate "start-up" experience. I have over 10 years in start-ups, so I'm a bit baffled by this and the fact that there were no implied or explicit questions about it.

The interview process started well — I met with a recruiter and the hiring manager. Both conversations were positive, and I moved to the next round. I was upfront about my current and previous professional experiences and assumed that if there were any flags, they would simply not progress me further. Before moving to the next round, the recruiter explained the rest of the process, which involved meeting with other team members, a member of the C-suite, and a final conversation with the hiring manager to go over a case study. After meeting with another team member and having that conversation go very well, the recruiter informed me that the hiring manager wanted to conduct a deep-dive before my meeting with the next team member. I thought that was odd since they initially told me that my next conversation with the hiring manager would only occur if I made it to the final case study round. I knew instantly that my lack of extensive people management would be held against me despite other parts of my background being a clear match. Everyone I interacted with was pleasant. However, the final parts of my interview experience were negative. I would have preferred it if the hiring manager had rejected my application after I informed the recruiter that I didn't have as much people management experience as they would have liked. Instead, they gave me the "thumbs up" to go through the interview loop while having no intention of genuinely considering me as a candidate for the position.