As a hiring manager, I have probably interviewed hundreds of candidates, created interview processes from scratch, and worked closely with the talent team on hiring strategy. By far, this is the worst interview I have ever witnessed in my career.

It was clearly a one-way interview: "Do they like me?" It took four weeks from the moment I was referred by a Spotify engineer until the initial call was scheduled. I know from experience this is the best way to lose talent, but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and not jump to conclusions.

Two hours before the call, the interview was rescheduled for the next day without even asking if I was available or if that was okay. Mind you, this was a call with the principal recruiter, someone who should set the standard for others.

A day after, she was late (10 minutes) and didn't even offer an apology, only saying, "These calls usually last for 15 minutes, so it's okay."

At that moment, I knew I didn't want to work with Spotify, but I continued out of curiosity. She didn't introduce herself. I was thinking, "If I were to be hired for this EM role, as a hiring manager, I would need to work with her or the team she's leading to hire software engineers, and if she's treating candidates like this, I would have trouble finding good people."

She then asked me to talk about the tech stack, and after a few words, she interrupted me, saying she had a concern about my tech stack. It's all written on my CV, so I'm not sure she even looked at it, as the concern would have arisen much sooner, and we wouldn't have wasted each other's time.

She then said she needed to speak to the hiring manager to find out if this is a hands-on role. I was surprised she didn't already have this information as a principal recruiter for this role.

Nowhere in the job description did they mention a hands-on role. Otherwise, if they had, I wouldn't have applied, as it's not what I'm looking for at the moment. They mentioned people management, delivery, working with a PM on a roadmap, etc. Coding was not mentioned at all.

The unpleasant interview continued, but I wouldn't bother the person reading any further.

At the end, she asked me if I had any questions, and I felt rushed to wrap up and was discouraged from asking more.

So, in the true spirit of a two-way interview: Unfortunately, based on this interview, I cannot recommend this employer.

Tell me a bit about yourself.

What is your tech stack?

These are very basic and standard questions.