Through a recruiter, I was set up with an initial phone screening, which consisted of me regurgitating mostly rote learning material. Nothing in there that you couldn't have found on MSDN or in any reference book.

Two onsite interviews followed, each lasting about two hours. The first was with development team members. They asked some fairly easy questions pulled from Google (mildly naive things). All the interviewers were former grad students who had never worked anywhere else and honestly believed they worked at the greatest place on Earth. Their questions spoke volumes about the level of quality expected, which was none.

The second interview was a video conference with managers in New York. This was just stupid. Mostly, the people I "met" were more interested in talking about themselves than interviewing me. I basically just sat quietly and let them interview themselves.

If I hadn't been as burnt out as I was at that point after my previous job, I wouldn't have accepted their offer, nor would I have gone in for that second interview.

They accepted the salaries I asked for.

There was nothing difficult. Which should have been my first hint that this was not the right place to be.