I went through the recruiter screen, then a 30-minute competency interview with the hiring manager, and reached the final stage where I presented a case study. It was obvious during the interview that they didn’t like the example I chose. In the feedback, they said they rejected me because they wanted someone with stronger pre-concept/early-concept experience. I actually have plenty of experience in that area, but the case-study brief didn’t mention this, and neither the recruiter nor the hiring manager highlighted that priority. They also didn’t ask any pre-concept questions during the presentation. Weeks later, the recruiter sent me an unprofessional copy-and-paste rejection email, accidentally including a line where the manager told them to “next time screen for pre-concept experience correctly” which came out negatively. The whole process felt disorganised and left a negative impression of the company.