This was an odd one. Initially, I spoke with the recruiter, and everything went fine. They understood my background and scheduled me with another QA engineer. Some shifting happened, and I was scheduled with a different one.

Here's where it became strange. We hopped onto a Zoom call, and I was asked about my day-to-day. I happened to mention that I'd had to do some leadership-related tasks, but it wasn't really my preference. That apparently sparked something in the interviewer, and they stuck onto that idea. They asked if I wanted an IC role or a lead role, to which I said IC, but if required, I would do lead as needed.

The interviewer continued to push on the leadership aspect and said the Senior role I applied for was more junior. When I asked what that meant, they said they were looking for someone with 5-7 years as a senior, not someone with more, like myself (confusing). They pushed back on recommending me for leadership, even though I said I would apply for leadership if I wanted it, but applied for IC because that's what I wanted to do.

The interview then ended awkwardly, and I didn't know what was happening. I had to contact the recruiter, and they said they were going to find a better fit (mind you, without tweaking my resume, I got the job almost verbatim).

So, as I said, strange.

What was your day-to-day like?