A recruiter reached out to me through LinkedIn quite a few months before I was set to graduate regarding the program and the role.

She introduced me to another recruiter, and we had a virtual chat. Both of them were nice, and the program seemed really interesting.

Fast forward 2 months later, I received an email from the recruiter asking me if I was still interested, which I was. I then gave the technical assessment and was later invited for two back-to-back interviews with leaders.

Now, the recruiter was really nice. I was sick, and someone close to me got sick too, and she accommodated the assessment window so I could give it properly.

However, the issue arose with the first interview with the leader. He had his camera off, and it was the first time I faced that, so I was surprised and got even more nervous. I was in a very noisy environment, so I misheard the first question and gave a longer answer than what he had hoped for.

After listening to me answer about my professional experience, he said, "Woah, that's a lot," and asked me follow-up questions as to why I was watching shows that I told him about when I was telling him about myself, and not my experience.

On top of that, he asked me random questions from parts of the resume that didn't even tie to the role and wasn't relevant to the previous questions either.

I did my best to answer elaborately and honestly since he seemed critical and uninterested in me from the beginning.

When I later asked him for feedback regarding the interview and where I can improve, he said that I should "learn how to actually code" and finished with "no offense," even though I have experience with coding, took classes, and even did coding on my internship, which was all listed in the resume, and I had described the different languages and frameworks I used too.

The second interview went well, and I got a lot of appreciation for the experience and skills I had, but I got rejected because one of the leaders thought I "talked too much."

The decision was not a surprise to me since I experienced the snide remarks and condescending tone in the first interviewer, but it was just not what I expected from a company that boasts about having such a good culture of support and growth.

Tell me about yourself and what experience you have for the role.

Why do you watch these shows on Netflix?

What are your favorite commands in Linux?

What's SaaS? Why is it on your resume?

When you are provided with a project, how do you go about it?