Recruiter reached out, she was looking for people with my job title (word matching). Wanted a resume without giving me the job description, or even talking about the position. I push back, no resume without having any idea what is going on. She called, asked her questions, we're done, but she does give me the job description that I requested. Nothing for 1 1/2 weeks. Then I get an email, good news, the hiring manager wants to talk with you *in person*. Send a resume. Recruiter schedules the day and time for Friday. The next day, she calls, you need to apply online to the position, so you can sign the NDA and I can schedule your 30 minute conversation that we’ve already confirmed. This sounded backwards, but if that’s what is required, no big deal. She sends the calendar invite, I didn’t click “yes”, she calls me up to make sure I’m going to be there. I ask why the first interaction is in person, since most hiring managers start with a phone conversation. She claims some people don’t do their best over the phone. I get there, the hiring manager is late, and they scramble to figure out what is going on. He is 10 minutes late and we start talking. He wants to know about me. I don’t even know what’s going on, I ask him to explain. The job description is vague, and it asks for network experience, which I clearly stated I don’t have, yet the recruiter asked for my cybersecurity background –what my current company does, which is NOT listed on the job description. Hiring manager explains they recently started this cybersecurity group and growing it. There is no real need for a network background. He admits he hasn’t read the job description, doesn’t know where I am in the process, seems surprised he’s the only person I’m talking to other than the recruiter. He explains this is all new, and so is the contract recruiter. He wants to know what I want to do. It’s becoming clear these guys have no idea what they are doing or what I’m doing there. We get into my experience, he seemed to like what I said, but then he musses that I might be a better fit for a different group. It sounded as if he would facilitate this. Monday morning, I get a curt one line rejection email, the hiring manager doesn’t want to move forward, I’ll be in touch if something comes up. The hiring manager had given his card, saying I can follow up as sometimes there are questions that come up afterwards. I email him, what is going on, I thought there was interest in my experience for the other group? I get a standard form message that they don’t want to move forward, they’ll keep my information in their records. It was clear that the recruiter was setting up these meetings to show she had some candidates for them to talk to, as justification for her job. The hiring manager was a nice guy clearly playing the game. I wasted time and effort going in for what should have been a phone screen. The Glassdoor reviews made this company sound like they valued their people. But if they treat candidates this badly, I dodged the bullet.