I interviewed with Shopify a few years ago and progressed to the onsite interview stage. I had nothing but positive experiences with Shopify back then, and the recruiter I worked with was extremely friendly and professional.

However, I was extremely surprised at how unprofessional the recruiter I worked with this time around was (a different person!).

• I applied for a Senior Software Engineer role.
• A recruiter contacted me about interviewing for this role and also asked if I would consider interviewing for a Senior Security Engineer role.
• I made it clear that I was not qualified for the security role. I have never worked as a security engineer.
• I was asked to do two consecutive phone interviews, one technical and one cultural with the recruiter, and ended up having to take half a day off from work.
• During the technical interview, I noticed that the questions all revolved around security. I asked the interviewer if I was interviewing for the security role, and the interviewer confirmed this.
• I never actually ended up interviewing for the role I had applied for and was interested in.

I felt bad for the engineer who interviewed me – I'm not a security engineer and only know basic, high-level concepts. It became clear to me pretty quickly that the technical interview was a waste of time for both sides.

I'm curious as to why I was forced to interview for a role that I didn't apply for and was not qualified for, and was pressured into taking time off from my current job. If I was asked to be flexible with my time more than I could offer, the least the recruiter could have done was to make it clear to me which role I was interviewing for before the interview took place. A "no" before the interview would have been perfectly fine with me, but this was not.