It was not a one-on-one chat. It was a panel interview. With four people. And no one told me in advance. The person I had been emailing—the one I would be working under—did not bother with a warm welcome, a friendly nod, or even a coherent sentence. Instead, he mumbled something in monotone, barely acknowledged my existence, and immediately passed me off to the rest of the panel like I was an unwanted guest at a dinner party. The others? Much nicer, but they worked in a different department. So while they seemed engaged, the one person whose opinion actually mattered acted like I was not even in the room. And let me tell you, that energy got to me. I tried to shake off the nerves and push through, but when you feel like you have walked into the wrong room and the host wants you gone, it is hard to bring your A-game. Now, I was told the interview would last about 60 minutes—a solid hour of in-depth conversation, getting to know my skills, my experience, and whether I would be a good fit. Instead? 20 minutes. I had spent hours preparing for all the classic questions—"What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Can you give an example of a challenge you overcame?" But most of them never even came up. Instead, just as the host seemed ready to wrap things up, he threw in one vague, last-minute question: "Is there anything we should know or anything we should have asked you?" Like… my strengths, my weaknesses, how my skills align with the job—basic things you would expect in an interview. Instead, they left me to fill in the gaps they did not bother to cover. Four days later, I checked their website. They had already extended an offer to someone else. Which makes me wonder—was this ever a real interview? Or did they already have someone in mind (maybe a friend) and just needed to go through the motions to tick a box?