TL;DR: Sorry, but I will be reaching out to my friends/colleagues who are currently employed at Apple instead of going through this recruiter (who shall remain unnamed).

To summarize: he had a poor professional demeanor. We had ongoing communication for 12 days and scheduled a phone screen. This all came to a halt because he reached out to me by accident (allegedly).

I would preface that this wasn't a full interview process, but rather a very poor experience with the recruiter who was 'guiding' me through the initial phases of the interviewing process.

Let's start at the very beginning. The recruiter reached out to me via email (for the second time) and mentioned that his senior recruiter shared my resume with him and 'received positive feedback from the iPhone Quality team and we would like to set up a phone call with you...'

I let this settle in my mind for a day, as I am a bit apprehensive at this point and happy with my current role. However, I decide that it would be good experience to apply anyway, so I respond in kind.

I respond with limited availability for a phone call with the current PQM and get a pretty snarky comment: 'That is your only availability? Usually, people don't get into the office until 9-10 AM, and 6:30 PM is pretty late...'

Here, I am caught off guard by the unprofessional tone of the guy. I do happen to have a job too, with a demanding schedule.

I open up my schedule, and he places a time on the calendar for the engineer I am to speak with. I confirm the time, and all things seem to be set. There is some back-and-forth discussing details of general topics to be prepared for and rescheduling.

The day before, he confirms that the appointment is still on.

Then, the night before the phone call, he sends me a follow-up email:

'I’m sorry, but it seems I reached out to you in error. If you’re interested in interviewing with Apple in the future, please let me know. Sorry for the inconvenience.'

I realize that there is a goal to be met quarter to quarter, but when you lose sight of such a major detail, this says something about the quality of recruiter here. This is definitely a black mark on Apple's recruiting effort.

Please provide your availability.