I was contacted by HR for a brief screening call and set up to meet with the team on-site. The hiring manager seemed friendly and gave me a team overview, and then asked me more about my background and interest in the role and the company. She then sent in her team of 3 to meet with me: let me be clearer, this was less of a meeting and more of a very disrespectful interrogation.
They offered their first name (that's all - no background of what they do, who they are) - and the next comment was "So tell us about you" - and then launching into a stream of technical questions (surrounding SQL, SAS, R, Python). One of the members on the team was nice and understood that people come from different technical stacks, the other was very expressive (triumphant when I couldn't answer one of her questions, and visibly stumped when I answered a particularly tough one, and the third sat as if this was the last place she wanted to be. She continually frowned upon my background, and didn't ask many questions, audibly making it clear that she isn't interested in me and so does not see the point in getting to know me better.
I left the interview with absolutely no idea about what groundbreaking work these other people do on the team, mind you. I appreciate the hiring manager and the team member who had the decency to be personable during the interview process, but can't really say for the person who just came in to display her lack of interest, and the one who felt she was sent in to triumph over me and took very visible pleasure every time I couldn't answer her (which wasn't a lot of times, thankfully). I take solace in knowing that by the end of the interview, I (the applicant), had lost interest in working with that team altogether. In future, I'd advise them to either screen better so that they don't interview candidates they don't particularly like, or at least project better versions of themselves so that the candidate feels motivated enough to get through the interview and still pictures himself working there.
I haven't head back from HR yet, but guess what, I'm not even inclined to follow up!
My best wishes and a heartfelt commendation of bravery to whoever takes up this role - tough task ahead of you!