Screening call with HR went well, but the interview with the manager, JD, was extremely poor. I’ve never had such a terrible interviewer. Here’s a breakdown of the interview: - Our scheduled time 20-minute in - no call from the hiring manager(HM). I had to email HR to remind the HM about the appointment. - When the manager called, there was an awkward silence for every response. It was clear that he wasn’t prepared and sounded like he had just woken up from a deep sleep. He didn’t have my resume in front of him, and it took a few minutes for him to pull it up. Again, there was an awkward silence as I tried to break the ice and make the conversation flow naturally, unlike the one I had with HR which went really smooth and well. - After he finally woke up and was ready with my resume, he explained that there was room for growth in the role and that the pay would be $60,000 per year. Since he mentioned the pay, I asked if it was possible to increase it to $65,000 since I live in the Bay Area. Even though I agreed with HR initially for 60K/yr, I had to give it a second thought about asking if there was room for negotiation after my call with HR because if you don't ask the answer is always 'no' (learned in my USAF military training). I mentioned that the cost of living is rough, and I hoped that my experience with SQL from my projects would be helpful to bring to the table. He asked me a question about SQL, and I answered, and he said, “Great. Talk to HR about the base pay.” He didn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t go over $60,000. - As I was ending the call, there was another awkward silence. When I ended the call with a positive attitude, I received no response other than an abrupt disconnect.