I drove over 30 miles to be interviewed at the company HQ. The company president stepped around the corner of the lobby area and shook my hand; my perception was that she was just checking me out, as she did not try to converse with me. I was led by the recruiter into a nice conference room, and the interview began. After chatting for about 30 min., I was surprised that the recruiter started going down a written list of formal interview questions. Several questions were similar enough that I responded, "we covered that already." I would think that after chatting with someone about their background/skills/experience for half an hour, that you would at least TRY to tailor the interview questions to be more specific to the person! I came away thinking that their recruiter doesn't do their job well. Her response to my thank-you letter was polite, but when I followed up a week later, she stated (politely) that there was another person who was a frontrunner for the position. BTW the job was a contingency position -- I love how recruiters will do that (make you take time away from the office, drive long distances, and THEN tell you they don't actually have the position available YET). Not sorry I didn't get the job.
