I was contacted by a junior recruiter on LinkedIn who encouraged me to apply and schedule a screening call with her senior recruiter. From the start, the energy was off. The senior recruiter was passive aggressive, sarcastic, and dismissive. He spoke down to me throughout the call and told me one of my answers was the worst he had ever heard. For a phone screen, that type of commentary was completely unprofessional & uncalled for. Also he isn’t a professional in my space to treat me like a pawn. You’re a recruiter.
There were no clear steps outlined at any point. I was never told how to prepare, what to expect, or how the process would unfold. I was later told I should have used the STAR method, even though that was never communicated ahead of time which I let him know. He also asked several personal questions about my current role that felt irrelevant and uncomfortable to answer.
Despite acting like I had bombed the conversation, the recruiter told me he didn’t want to fly me out yet and wanted a second opinion just to be sure. He scheduled a follow-up call with the hiring manager to get her take.
That call was the only part of the process that felt professional. The hiring manager was respectful and gave me space to speak. She mentioned she would reconnect with the recruiter to align on next steps. Toward the end of the call, she made a bold claim that nobody ever leaves Datadog. I smiled and nodded because I genuinely wanted to receive an offer. I said “wow, that’s amazing to hear,” not because I fully believed it, but because it was not the time or place to challenge her. I can see how that may have come off as naive or green, but realistically, who is going to push back on that kind of statement during an interview?
The next day, the recruiter followed up and said the manager liked me, but some of my answers came off green. Then he added they wanted to schedule a mock situational interview over Zoom before flying me out. This was never mentioned earlier and felt like a made-up step added last minute. The expectations kept changing, and it felt like I was being tested more than evaluated.
When I asked for a breakdown of compensation twice, I was sent a generic prep guide instead that didn’t address anything I actually needed to know which was a red flag. During the initial call, comp was rushed through so fast I could barely follow. There was no transparency.
One more thing stood out. The sales cycle and deal size they described were significantly smaller and shorter than what I work with in my current company. Based on that information, I have a hard time believing any account executive in that role could realistically reach 90k. It did not sound scalable or lucrative compared to what I’ve seen in the industry. Read the reviews online and trust your gut.
Overall, the process felt disorganized, defensive, and poorly run. The recruiter’s energy was combative, not collaborative. If a candidate is clearly not a fit, say that. If they are, treat them with professionalism. Unfortunately, that was not the case here. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
