I applied for a slightly higher position, a principal software engineer position.

First, I received a phone call from a recruiter who told me about the position and shared some specifics from the hiring manager – he is a C++ lover, just like me. So, I coded the offline tests in C++ and submitted the code quickly, feeling satisfied.

I immediately got an email scheduling a phone discussion with the hiring manager.

I replied quickly for the phone conversation. Then, when I looked at the email chain, I found the position level had been decreased by one level without my acknowledgement. I am not a person who obsesses over titles, but doing that without even mentioning it to me?

I called the recruiter quickly to clarify. She spoke with me about this for an hour. Without knowing me, and before any actual technical discussions, she asked me about my current level and compensation, blah, blah, blah, then told me she thought the lower-level position was more suitable for me since the higher one was mostly already taken.

I bought that and waited for my discussion with the hiring manager. He made me wait for 20 minutes, then immediately jumped to the interview question when he finally called me, according to the schedule. He didn't apologize, other than complaining about the recruiter not getting the schedule right. He didn't lay out the problems clearly at all but expected me to give the correct answer right away. I felt my time and my status as a candidate were not respected at all. Hey, you are interviewing me, but I am also interviewing you and your company.

Anyway, the conversation didn't go in the right direction, and I received a rejection email after a day, which was expected from the phone meeting ordeal.

At this point, I am glad it didn't go through. Otherwise, my work there could have been a nightmare if my time, skills, and effort would not be respected by my future manager and the company.

How to optimize a memory situation:

Millions of lines of data need to be read into a server.