I had a brief phone screen with an HR Manager, then was brought in for a face-to-face. I was supposed to be interviewed by both the hiring manager (VP) and a director with a similar background to mine. However, the designated director was unable to meet in person due to an emergency, so even though she was on the phone, they asked another director to fill in at the last minute. This person seemed highly resentful of being called in at the last minute, and openly complained to me about recent changes at the company as she walked me in. During the interview, it was very apparent that because my career path and background were different than hers, she did not think my skills were relevant. (Almost as if there is some invisible assembly line in her mind about how people move from one position to another.) And when I told her I enjoy learning new things, she said something like “I don’t understand what you think you’re going to learn here.” My take away from this part of the interview was that, if I was hired, I would probably not enjoy working alongside this particular person. By the time the VP came in, I was already pretty unimpressed but willing to look past one hostile person. Since the company literature talks a lot about the importance of innovation, I asked him if, in addition to being innovative with their products, they were also innovative in the insights group, in terms of trying new methods or analytic approaches. He said “No.” He explained that they work with a set list of suppliers and generally do the same type of work over and over. Then he told me had no questions to ask me. Then he said something along the lines of being disappointed that there weren’t more applicants. That seemed a tad inappropriate to me - what am I, chopped liver? Leaving the interview, I had zero good vibes about the culture or the people. They could not have been less enthused about talking to me, so not sure why they bothered. It was borderline insulting, to be honest.