I was contacted to participate in a half-hour phone interview by a recruiter. A few days later, I was told that I was selected for an on-site interview and had that scheduled. I was asked to prepare a presentation that went over the most challenging project I had worked on, as well as an exec summary of myself and my career.

The recruiter greeted me at the reception area on the day of the on-site interview. They were 15 minutes late, so I had to rush the tour of the facility. The recruiter looked rather disinterested and stressed out during the 10-minute tour. Can't blame them; everyone has so much work to do.

The on-site started with me giving my 20-minute presentation. I was peppered with questions during the whole thing. After this, I was taken to another room to work on a very short design question while the group deliberated whether they wanted to continue interviewing me. I was not told that I could be sent home at this point beforehand. They decided to keep going, and I was asked to talk about the design question I was given.

After that, they deliberated once more and decided to continue interviewing me. I had four one-on-one interviews. They were looking for fast responses. Whatever comes to the top of your head, you need to spit out (and it should be a decent ballpark response), otherwise, they will not think you are good enough.

I was taken to lunch in between the one-on-ones, which was laid back. I was actively making conversation; otherwise, the lunch would probably have been silent. They want to see your interest and passion.

At the end, they added one more one-on-one interview with the director of the department for 30 minutes, which was basically just brain teasers. At the end of the interview, the director escorted me directly out and said I would be contacted very soon with a response.

Many technical questions were asked. I had so much fun answering and thinking about them.

I waited one week and emailed my recruiter and got no response.

I waited one more week and emailed once more, and at this point, I knew. Three minutes after this email, I got a very rushed call from the recruiter telling me I was not selected and wished me the best of luck.

The recruiter made their best effort to get off the phone and dodge my questions. I asked for feedback on the interview via email that evening and was told they did not receive any feedback and wished me the best of luck. Bummer.

The recruiter had all of the feedback and notes from the interview but did not want to give anything out (I found out later, once I was contacted by a different recruiter).

Recruiters make a HUGE difference in your interview experience. They can be helpful, or they can simply discard you; it just depends on their personality and how lazy they are. They are not interested in building relationships with potential candidates.

Communication was so warm in the beginning and turned ice cold the minute I left the building. After this whole process, I felt as though I was brought in just to fill a mandated quota of bodies that needed to be interviewed before an offer could be made. I felt like material that was discarded after it was used just once.

What is the most clever design you have seen?