I applied through LinkedIn/Instahyre and got a call from HR. the HR felt a bit nervous and was in hurry, he was asking questions very fast and cutting me in between, wasn’t really listening properly. still he scheduled the interview.
now coming to the interview, similar experience. the interviewer didn’t seem very open or friendly, was very straight and honestly felt a bit rude. just after introduction he asked “how are you?”, I didn’t hear properly so I said pardon, he replied in a louder tone “I said how are you”. that itself set a weird tone.
then he kept giving instructions like “share your screen”, “open notepad quickly”, very command-like. within 5 minutes I already felt not to continue as I wasn’t comfortable, but still I continued.
when he gave the question, I was trying to understand it and was writing some notes for myself, but for every small thing he kept asking “why are you doing this?”, “what are you doing?” without even letting me think properly.
whenever I tried to explain, he kept cutting me in between. also made comments like “you have this many years of experience right? you don’t know this?” which felt more like taunts than actual discussion.
because of all this I got distracted and couldn’t focus properly, ended up making mistakes. I agree that part is on me, I should have handled it better, but the overall environment was not helping at all.
we moved to next question, but same thing again — interrupting, no time to think, and again sarcastic tone about experience. at that point I felt quite irritated and uncomfortable, I paused for few minutes and then decided not to continue.
I have given many interviews recently and never quit any, even reached final rounds in few good product companies. questions asked here were actually basic and should have been doable easily for my experience, but because of the whole vibe I wasn’t able to answer properly.
overall, interview experience didn’t feel good. would suggest they make it more conversational and give candidates some space to think.