Applied to two open Product Designer roles I found via LinkedIn and in about a week had an interview scheduled with a recruiter. I prepared enough through reviewing my portfolio and work experience and came prepared to have a dialogue that was equal parts discussion about my design history and Favor as a company. The interview was far from that. This was a 30 minute phone screen, and seconds after answering the phone the recruiter said "We have a lot to cover in this 30 minutes so I'm going to dive right in" which struck me as odd. What was even more odd was how intense this phone screening was, where I was even asked STAR-based questions. This floored me. I know how to prepare for and answer STAR-based questions, but never in my life have I had or would expect such questions from a recruiter phone screen where only 30 minutes was allotted. I answered to the best of my ability given this curveball. They asked about salary expectations at the end. When I said my expectation was only $120k, they said they likely couldn't swing that and their range was $110-115k. I'm take that to mean they don't negotiate salaries flexibly. After spending 25 of the 30 minutes drilling me on my design & tech stack experience and verbally suggesting I don't know Adobe CC very well (which I do and have used extensively for years), I had 5 minutes remaining to ask my questions about the open roles and company. Out of a list of 7 I had prepared beforehand, I maybe only had time to get 2 or 3 questions in. I learned the two positions were open because the last two designers quit; no new exciting ventures or endeavors to warrant the open roles, just backfill. They'd been open for a couple weeks when I applied, and it has since been another 3 weeks and they're still open. Less than a week after the phone screen, I got an email that said they wouldn't be moving forward with my candidacy. Not going to lie, I was kind of relieved. I don't think I'll be reapplying. Overall I felt like the tone of the interview was very much "Why should we LET you work for us? Are you really high-value?" like I had to prove and defend myself as an industry professional, rather than "Let's learn about each other equally to see if there's a potential match here". Definitely felt a weird power dynamic just over the phone, which I can only imagine is what the vibe would be like to actually work there day-to-day.