The interview process was what I expected. However, I want to take a minute to tell you about the absolutely incompetent recruitment team.

A recruiter reached out to me, and I expressed my interest. Then, a different recruiter asked for my availability within the next five business days. I provided my availability, to which they replied by scheduling an interview more than five business days in advance, at a time slot I had never given availability for.

When I asked why they scheduled it that way, I was told rather snarkily, "Your interviewer is a Director and doesn’t have much availability." Why did you ask for my availability in the first place when you’re just going to ignore it?

After that first interview, I was scheduled for more interviews with people from the engineering team. Two separate interviews were scheduled for the same day and same time, with two different people and two different Webex links. I asked if that was a mistake, but received no reply!

I turned up to one of these interviews, and no one was in the room. I switched to the other interview, and someone was indeed waiting; we completed the interview. Still, there was no reply from recruitment about the double booking.

Two days later, I received a phone call asking why I didn’t show up for one of the interviews. They told me I was scheduled for the day after the double booking. I confirmed that the emails I had received weren’t for the day they claimed I no-showed. I received a halfhearted apology, and we rescheduled.

I continued to attend the scheduled interviews. After five rounds, all I received was radio silence. Recruitment completely ghosted me and won’t reply to my emails anymore. All I received was an automated message asking me to join their Talent Network with no context.

Cisco, no one wants to join you if your recruiters treat your candidates with such incompetence and indifference!