One of the more frustrating interview experiences I've had. I was asked a fairly common behavioral question about building trust with a new team. Because I'd been asked similar questions in recent interviews, I gave a thorough, structured answer covering individual growth, team dynamics, and culture.
Instead of engaging with the content of my answer, the interviewer suggested I might be reading from an AI tool, citing the way my eyes were moving during the video call. I offered to share my screen to demonstrate I wasn't using any AI tools, and offered to walk through specific examples from my own past experience to support what I had just said. Both offers were declined, and the rest of the conversation centered around him giving me advice on how to appear more natural with my speech and eye movements when using AI tools during future interviews.
For context: I wasn't using any AI tool. Eye movement during thinking and speaking is normal, and sustained eye contact over video is difficult for most people. It was disappointing to have a well thought-out, substantive answer dismissed based on bias rather than evaluated on its merits, with no opportunity to verify the concern despite offering to do so.
