A 3rd party recruitment agency found my resume and asked me if I was interested in any of the positions they were looking for at Quicken. I told them yes, which was probably my first mistake.

I went through an interview with the recruiter to select a position to apply for, then they forwarded on my information. I was granted a 30-minute phone interview, which I thought would be behavioral.

My recruiter wasn't able to provide any technical details to adequately help me prepare for the interview. As soon as the interviewers joined the conference call and told me their names, they immediately went into "20 questions about databases" mode. They weren't really interested in my background or any of my side projects that demonstrated my passion, just if I could provide the textbook definition answers to their questions.

At this point I realized they weren't looking for talented people who could do the job; they were looking for people who had done exactly that job, and they felt I was a waste of their time. They went on to ask me if I was a Guru or Expert on Stack Exchange, of which there are very few (since it is extremely difficult to achieve that title), and people with that kind of experience easily make double what Quicken was offering. The qualifications they were looking for were nowhere near what the job description listed.

The next day the recruiter called and told me they decided to go with another candidate, which is rather misleading to say, since the position is still open on the careers page of their site.

Are you a Guru or Expert on Stack Exchange? What certifications do you have or plan to have in the future?