My recent interview experience with TIAA was notably unprofessional. I was contacted by a member of the HR Talent Acquisition team for a scheduled 30-minute Zoom interview. While I joined the meeting on time, the HR representative was significantly late, necessitating an email inquiry about rescheduling before they joined. Technical difficulties were cited as the reason for the delay, which I understood. However, the interview that followed was concerning. After a few standard questions, the interviewer repeatedly challenged my qualifications, particularly focusing on a lack of direct experience, requiring me to constantly defend my background. This made me question why I was invited to interview if my profile was deemed unsuitable. The conversation further deteriorated when the HR member referenced work experience from over five years ago, outside of the relevant industry, to support their assessment that I was not a strong candidate based on a conversation with the hiring manager. When I questioned the relevance of these outdated experiences, the interviewer became defensive and retracted the point. The interview concluded in less than ten minutes, and I immediately withdrew my application. Coming from a direct competitor in the Fortune 500 financial services sector, I was genuinely taken aback by the lack of professionalism displayed during this interaction with the TIAA HR Talent Acquisition team. Based solely on this experience, I would hesitate to recommend TIAA as an employer.