I responded to a job ad and was contacted by a recruiter. The process went smoothly and was handled very professionally, with everything explained transparently. In the next stage, I had a conversation with the hiring manager. However, I got the impression that the manager wasn’t particularly interested in me from the start. Although I had prepared well for the interview, I was hardly asked any questions. Instead, the manager spent most of the time discussing the technicalities of the role and the company dynamics. I wasn’t asked a single question until I took the initiative to steer the conversation. This made me feel like they had already made up their mind about another candidate and were only conducting the interview with me as a formality for the HR process.