By far this was the worst interview experience I’ve ever had in my life. I was interviewing for their Product Marketing Manager position in October 2022. The phone screen was great, the recruiter was super helpful and answered all of my questions. I even got a “good luck” email from their coordinator on the day of my interview with the hiring manager. However, here’s when it got worse. My interview with the hiring manager was 11 PM (yes at night) because the hiring manager was in China. I was happy to stay late to do this interview due to the time difference, and obviously, you would hope the hiring manager would appreciate it. No, I was wrong. First off, the hiring manager was late (only 7 minutes not a deal breaker). Second of all, she was conducting the interview over the phone and IN PUBLIC! I could hear cars, people talking or laughing, and just random noises during the interview. I could barely hear her. Third of all, the hiring manager did not introduce herself or even went though the job description with me. The first thing she said was, “why are you interested in this role?” I was pretty thrown off at this point and frustrated because I feel like at least I could be respected for my time (especially when I stayed up late for this interview on a Friday night). After I introduced myself and all the “I’m a rockstar” pitch, the hiring manager proceeds to ask me questions about the role (tell me about a time you launched a product, tell me a time you created a plan for a specific feature for a niche market, etc) I then answered these questions in the STAR method. I put in so much preparation for this interview. Then, the hiring manager proceed to ask me the same questions but in a different way. For example, I’ve mentioned my current job title in the beginning of the interview, but she would ask me what my title is atm in the MIDDLE of our conversation. It was pretty clear at this point not only she hasn’t reviewed my resume, but she wasn’t listening to me at all. She then proceed to ask me a lot of follow up questions as to how I create a GTM plan for a product feature (which again, I’ve mentioned this before). I almost feel like she’s trying to gain insights into how to launch a product by herself and taking tips/tricks or ideas from other people. She then left room for questions for me to ask. I asked her a couple of questions like “who are our competitors in your opinion, based on my research, I found x company and x company are the competitors, but what other companies would you add to this list?” She then said, “I am not sure, you have everyone on the list”. I was extremely disappointed with my interview experience with the hiring manager specifically. It’s sad how the recruiters work so hard to set a tone for the candidate experience, but end up ruining it because of the hiring manager. Obviously, I didn’t get the job lol. I am sure not all hiring managers are like this, I may happen to bump into a really bad one. Hope this helps everyone who’s going in to interview with tiktok!