I didn't expect much professionalism from a big company, but they managed to surprise me.

After the initial application, a recruiter reached out, stating my profile looked interesting (template email #1). They sent me a PDF ('mindset exercise') to gauge my experience and thinking. I completed this, and two weeks later, the same recruiter emailed, saying the hiring manager really liked my answers (template email #2) and it was time to set up a phone call.

I spent considerable time preparing for the call, reading their blog posts (which proved to be useful). However, I was apparently alone in my efforts. The recruiter, sounding bored, called me and didn't even bother introducing herself or the company.

When I mentioned my preparation and reading about their quality engineering practices, her comment was, "Okay, so you know everything, right? Why don't you talk about your most recent experience then?"

The conversation then devolved into an embarrassing Q&A session with pointless questions. One such question asked me to rate my exploratory testing skills. She asked two more, and we had been on the call for only about eight minutes.

I received an email the next day stating they had chosen not to continue with my application (template #3).

Two days later, I received an offer from a different company for a senior role.

How would you rate your exploratory testing skills?