I had a phone interview with a recruiter regarding the position I had applied for. I found the recruiter to be very pushy and unpleasant. Straight off, he said he could tell I was nervous (aren't most people?) and demanded I stop being nervous. He grilled me on job duties I had done more than a decade ago (that had nothing to do with the job I was interviewing for) and when I couldn't give specific examples on situations as I couldn't remember back that far, he got very irritated. He said the hiring manager would be even more demanding than he was, so I better spend time trying to remember every task I had done for every job I had ever had and be prepared to give very long and specific examples for each task. He said I was very poor at doing phone interviews and basically implied that it's a good thing I had him as my savior to help "coach" me on how to interview. Interesting, since I've gotten plenty of jobs with my style of interviewing and most people would probably be put off by any recruiter who acted like him.
The recruiter emailed me about a week later stating the hiring manager wanted to meet and the recruiter wanted to have a call with me before that to make sure I was prepared to interview his way. No thanks. I declined both the call and in-person interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
He didn't ask anything that is normally asked. He made demanding statements more than anything.
I applied online. I interviewed at TIAA (New York, NY) in Jul 2025
Interview
Both comprehensive and thorough, the team was good to work with throughout. Long process from start to finish but good HR department. More of a get to know you in the first phase, second phase a bit more finite in questions. Technical questions came up throughout but were not the ultimate emphasis, if you interview well you will likely get bumped to the next round where the interview is with three to four members of different groups who ask very different questions. Then after that process, you will have two final interviews with the group heads and they ultimately have to give you the okay.
Start with resume short listing then HR round then lead analyst round then assitant director round then HR round for discussion on compensation. This is the process for interview at tiaa.
I applied online. The process took 5 months. I interviewed at TIAA (Denver, CO) in Jan 2024
Interview
The interview process started off well, but the company as a whole continued to post multiple jobs daily during a job freeze that lasted over 6 months. Doesn't seem very honest or transparent to job seekers or employees.