I was approached by a Workday recruiter via email. We set up a time to talk via Zoom.

The recruiter screen went well enough, and she said a technical interview with a hiring manager would be set up. I went a week with no reply, so I emailed her back asking about the status. She said there was some mix-up and that I would receive an invite shortly. Fine, stuff happens.

I received the invite for the second Zoom interview, and it was a no-show on their end. I told the recruiter what happened and when a reschedule could occur.

It was set up for a couple of days later. The hiring manager and I had a good back-and-forth, and I thought I was a good fit for the opening based on our conversation. After a few days, I hadn't received any follow-up, so I sent an email to the recruiter again. She set up another Zoom interview to go over next steps and results.

This is where it got really weird...

• On the final Zoom call, she said that they would not be moving forward with me because I had too much automation experience.
• I told her that most of my experience is on the functional side and very little of my experience is automation-related.
• Then she asked me for my email address because she had apparently mixed my profile up with someone else's (?).
• I told her my email address, and then she started to re-interview me. She said that I didn't have enough experience working in a team-related environment.
• I told her that all of my past experience has been team-based and collaborative.
• Then she asked me how much experience I had.
• I told her how much, and then she said that wasn't enough (even though she had just claimed that I had too much automation experience). All of the above is information that she should have and did know beforehand.
• I asked for further clarification on this (because why would I even get to speak to a hiring manager if I didn't meet the role's requirements?). Her reply was, "You see, this is why I don't like to give feedback: it gets contentious and makes me uncomfortable." Then she asked me if I had any questions, but I said no because it would be like talking to a wall, and that was the end of it.

What?

My guess is that she was too embarrassed by initially not knowing who I was (even though she was the one who set up the Zoom call) and didn't want to double back on her initial decline when she thought I was someone else. This is loony tunes; couldn't make this stuff up.

I was really looking forward to this role, but I guess the recruiter ended up doing the exact opposite of their job: turning away good talent by giving a bad experience.

P.S. The hiring manager definitely left a good impression on me and wasn't part of the confusion I experienced.

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