Ask HN: How are your interviewers being rude to you?
This happened about Q1 2019 or something like that IIRC.<p>I went into the interview with a couple of red flags already. The main one is that the person at the recruiting company told me something like I should go in &quot;with an open mind and calm&quot;, that they were very &quot;harsh&quot; and they used to do &quot;very tough interviews&quot; and that other interviewees had commented they didn&#x27;t like it much.<p>Anyway, I went in.<p>I met with the Chief People Officer and the Head of Engineering, and yes, right from the start they were... I don&#x27;t know, maybe they just had a somewhat impatient tone. Not too bad. But as we went on, they got increasingly so. They tended to cut me short on all the questions they asked. I know I sometimes do talk too much, so I just tried not to and that&#x27;s it.<p>It was... a bit weird, but just that. It didn&#x27;t feel that tough.<p>Then they asked about me having imparted some classes and trainings... &quot;Maybe, 5, 6 people?&quot;<p><pre><code>    me&gt; Sometimes more, like 10 or 20. It depends.
    them&gt; Yeah, so then you feel a knot in your stomach, right?
    me&gt; Ah... no, not rea...
    them&gt; What are you, made of stone??
    me&gt; Well, no, but I&#x27;ve done it many times so I don&#x27;t rea...
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They kept interrupting and trying to lead me to say whatever things they wanted. Since I wasn&#x27;t, they got increasingly aggressive, sometimes raising their voice unexpectedly. They took turns at interrupting, at repeatedly asking some things, etc. They always asked things in the negative e.g. &quot;you surely have never worked with...&quot; or &quot;you probably only know basic JavaScript, right?&quot;, and most of that was already in my resume so I had to answer by correcting them a lot.<p>After this went on for maybe 30-40 minutes, they finally got enough of it and offered if there was anything <i>I</i> wanted to ask.<p>They hadn&#x27;t really told me much at all about their project, technology... really about anything, expect for a very generic overview. So I did want to ask. I started with something I thought easy.<p><pre><code>    me&gt; So, you mentioned this is a Java project; is it Spring based?
    them&gt; That&#x27;s none of your business.
    me&gt; Sorry?
    them&gt; You don&#x27;t need to know. You&#x27;ll be working on the front so whatever.
    me&gt; Well, I would like to have a better overview of the project. Knowing the technologies may give me a better idea of the general state of the code...
    them&gt; THE CODE IS FINE. We wrote it and it&#x27;s great code.
    me&gt; Yes, of course, sorry. I didn&#x27;t mean it that as not being good, just get an idea of the age, the general structure...
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Very reluctantly, they explained that it was a Struts (1.2.x) application. But not really. Apparently they had sort of forked Struts internally to do some &quot;tricky stuff&quot; from the JSPs, or whatever. They were really unwilling to explain much at all and the little I got out of them was with constant snorting and chuckling at anything I asked clarification for, like I was waiting their precious time.<p>I would have but didn&#x27;t dare to ask much else. And I had lost all interest anyway. So we ended the interview after a few more minutes. I kindly said goodbye. The CPO was amiable enough to shake my hand -again, this was mid-2019- but the Head of Engineering didn&#x27;t feel like doing that and simply remained seating looking at something or other on their phone.<p>This would have been weird enough. The next day I spoke to the person from the recruiting company. I told her, without going into details, that I felt they had been quite aggressive, even to the point of being rude. She laughed nervously and agreed that they could sometimes be &quot;a bit abrupt&quot;. Anyway, I told her, I wasn&#x27;t interested; I didn&#x27;t think any good could come out of that. <i>KTHXBAI</i> and that&#x27;s it, I thought.<p>But somehow, it seems they asked the recruiter for my number and, for whatever reason, she agreed and gave it to them. So about a couple of hours later, an unknown number calls and it&#x27;s the Head of Engineering. They are... well, not cordial, but at least a tiny bit more agreeable than the day before. They ask what I think, about the project, the position, the offer...<p><pre><code>    me&gt; Ah, sorry. I already told [recruiter] from [recruiting company]. After our interview yesterday, I don&#x27;t think this is what I am looking for. The project seems nice but at this moment I&#x27;m not interest...
    them&gt; OH, YEAH?! Well, then just know that WE&#x27;RE NOT INTERESTED IN YOU EITHER!!
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And <i>click</i>, they just hanged up on me.