It all started with delaying the interview three times, despite communicating that I had other offers and the process started with several other companies. They reached out and the back and forth with Recruiters was very slow and painful. I offered times that I was available and eventually just said I would make any time work for them because they were too busy to flex into my schedule.
After I finally had a phone conversation with the recruiter it started to move and I had a call set up at their availability. That's fine, but it didn't scream, "we want you!".
The phone call started off late, which is usually understandable with meetings that run late and so forth but the interviewer said "I just lost track of time, sorry!" which isn't a good excuse. I was then asked to explain what I knew about the position, standard time-killer, based on what I read from the job req. and after that a few mundane questions about why I wanted to leave my current company (which frankly is a time-killer as well, most adept folks know that this is to weed out someone who wants to leave because they hate working 40 hours a week).
I very quickly knew this was not going to be somewhere I wanted to work, but I kept at it just to make sure I wasn't judging too quickly. That's when we talked about the hiring manager, their style, and lots of "f bombs"...not professional or respectful. Totally fine with a relaxed culture, but this went beyond the "we're a fun place to work" vibe. The "product question" was simply asking me what I would change about the website, which was easy since I had prepared by visiting all of the pages and taking notes on product improvements. Awesome. However, the interviewer kept saying that I wouldn't know anything, and I have to launch the product blindly, despite me asking lots of clarifying questions to get a better feel for what we need to deliver and why. The back and forth was clearly intentional, but the answers to my questions were neither helpful or correct, which sealed the deal.
I wasn't under the impression that Groupon is doing well in their innovations, and from a product standpoint things clearly are not well-defined or have much guidance.