I felt hunted by the company.

Most of the interview process was decent, or even good. The individuals I spoke to in my first few interviews were keen, friendly, and clearly had a goal of understanding myself and my body of work. They came into the process with a sincere and positive outlook.

Unfortunately, in the last interview I had, I was put with an individual who, to my eyes, had no desire to be there. They were not sufficiently prepared for our discussion and indeed seemed to already have their mind made up as to their preference for the role (definitely not me).

The individual immediately put me on edge and caused me to enter a state of heightened anxiety, which is not common for me. I knew from the first word that the chances of getting beyond this interview were very slim.

They spent a chunk of their time asking unrelated (or a few barely related) 'gotcha' type questions, wherein the 'correct' answer would likely have to be read from their mind. This was all exacerbated by my anxiety level, which made it difficult to try to reply at all, much less with specific answers based on what I thought they might really be asking.

It also appeared they were not interested in my body of work and wouldn’t let me even talk about any past work which was actually suited to the role in question.

I had spent days preparing for high-level software engineering and architecture discussion; however, unfortunately, that was not the focus, and I came away feeling as if I didn’t have an opportunity to present my best self.

The expectations for interviews before that were well described, and each interviewer was focused on those expectations, bringing with them a fair bit of positivity and openness.

Every company has some interviews which miss the mark, and I will say that most of the process seemed to go smoothly. Up until the last interview, I had felt valued and respected as a candidate.

What is a better way to do this?