I applied online and a couple of days later a recruiter called me to schedule an interview with the hiring manager. No questions asked, just my availability. The conversation with the hiring manager was a bit odd, he didn’t ask many questions and didn’t give me a chance to ask the questions I had about the company, culture, team, etc. I spoke with the hiring manager again about 2 weeks later (Zoom) where he presented their business model and asked me to come up with 1-2 products proposal as a next move and make a presentation in the following week, which would be the final phase. I thought it was quite odd that it was not part of the process meeting the team, speak with other people in the company, and the hiring manager boss, which is naturally what happens to other recruiting processes. I worked the whole weekend on my presentation and had 30 minutes to present it. Two other people were invited to join the meeting (Zoom), including the hiring manager boss, but neither of them joined it. The meeting was very frustrating. It was only me and the hiring manager, who seemed to be distracted and uninterested. Again, there was no time for me to ask questions as he was in a hurry for another meeting, as he said. We hear about some companies using candidates to get ideas to improve their businesses, and I think this one might be it. At the end of the day, it is a free consulting job for them. I wouldn’t be saying it if they had presented a random business case and asked me to come up with a solution. However, when a company present their business model and ask candidates to come up with the next move to grow their business, then that is a red flag. On top of that, there were some other red flags along the way. Recruiting process is a two-way street, not a one-way street and the way they led the process has led me to believe they were using candidates to get some ideas to make their business grow. Even though I lost interest in this company after the presentation, I was curious to hear back from them but have not heard anything yet, which is interesting for a company that claims to provide feedback to all candidates.