I received an email from a recruiter saying she saw my resume on my university's career portal and was interested in connecting over the phone. The email was very vague and included no information about the position, allowing for minimal research on the role prior to the phone conversation. The phone conversation began with the recruiter asking me about my goals and interests to see how well they aligned with the job. I believe this a great way to start an interview. What was strange to me is that after I described my interests, the recruiter replies with a description of the job role and then mentions that our descriptions don't seem to match up and that I probably am not be a good fit, although both descriptions were actually very closely related. Note that this is about two minutes into the conversation. I described my management role, then the recruiter described a management role; the only difference was our wording. The recruiter's inability to see that was the first red flag, as it showed a lack of understanding of the inner-workings of managing a team. The other part of the interview that was a red flag for me was when I asked, "What's the best part of working at McMaster-Carr?" and the recruiter's response was the work-life balance. When asked to elaborate on what the best part of actually being at MMC or to describe the best parts of the MMC work culture, the recruiter was speechless. While anyone can surely appreciate a steady work-life balance, the question was about why someone would enjoy working at MMC. The work-life balance response just says to me, "The best part of working here is getting to go home at the end of the day," particularly because the recruiter wasn't able to say anything good about what happens during the day. As Ivy Leaguers exiting college, many of us are looking to a) be challenged b) genuinely enjoy our jobs. My advice is, if you're looking to recruit Ivy Leaguers, you need to be a little less bland, a little more open-minded, and maybe less transparent about the fact that working at MMC isn't all that enjoyable. Had I received an offer, I would not have taken it.