A recruiter contacted me via their own website, LinkedIn. A junior recruiter spoke with me first, and then a senior recruiter called me. The recruiters were courteous and punctual. They had taken the time to read my resume and asked interesting questions.

I was a little skeptical, as being a C++ developer, I had very little Java experience. They told me they were language-agnostic, which sounded acceptable to me.

I was then set up for a technical phone screen, which was a most unprofessional experience. The interviewer was 22 minutes late. I almost thought they had stood me up. When he called, he sounded rushed, and it was evident he had not read my resume. He asked me to describe my projects and then cut me off mid-sentence; he was not even interested in my work history.

This was followed by some standard Java questions, which I answered. However, I also told him I had no Java experience, and he seemed taken aback – another sign he had not read my resume.

He gave me two programming questions on CollabEdit: RPN and justify. I coded up the first, and he agreed that what I had written would work. As soon as I started the second problem, he told me he would be kicked out of the conference room, so I had to hurry. Effectively, I had less than 40 minutes for what was supposed to be an hour-long interview.

He hung up and told me I had 15 minutes to finish the code on the CollabEdit session, which was still live. I received no further input from him. Even though I posted comments and questions in the CollabEdit chat, I got no reply. He clearly was not reading my code, and I should not have bothered.

It was not a good experience. A couple of days later, the recruiter emailed me and told me I was not a match.

I did not encounter any difficult questions; it was just the unprofessional attitude of the engineer that I was taken aback with.