I’ll try to keep this review short. What happened... After two phone interviews I was asked to come in person. My first interview was with the engineer, which in this position doesn’t make sense, but since I have web development background this wouldn’t be a problem. After explaining to me that he has no SEO knowledge and is here because his boss wants him to quiz on me coding, he asked me to code a webpage from scratch. Very odd request but again, no problem. I coded a basic website framework and walked him through my code and code from their website. Second interview was with an actual SEO manager which was great. He gave me a use case and we deep dived different angels of approaching the problem. Even taught him some things he didn’t know. 3rd interview was with content manager. This interview went well. We discussed how content and SEO works together. 4th interview was with another manager and that went well. We talked strategy, SEO, Marketing, corporate jargon, along with other topics. The last interview was with the hiring manager I spoke with before. About 2 minutes before our meeting started he sat at the table outside the conference room in which he was looking directly at me. Once we made eye contact he IMMEDIATELY looked back down at his laptop. Odd. For the whole 45 minutes, he created impossible use cases scenarios in which no one would be able to answer. Example. One question was “ if you have 2 million dollars to spend, and we are trying to go from 5 million VISITS to 10 million VISITS in a YEAR, what would you spend money on?” I said “I would take 500k and start with paid search”, before I could finish he said “ nope you can’t do that now what?” I said “ok well then I would hire some contractors to the team and” I get cutoff... “ nope you can’t hire anyone for a month”. I said “I thought you said we had a year?” “No it’s a month”. Now I say “let’s touch on a hot topic and tweet, Facebook, YouTube, and create content in the site about it.” “Well how would you do that?” I’m thinking I just explained this 4 seconds ok but ok I’ll repeat myself. Do so, now he says “This is only 10k clicks, we need 5 million”.... I say “well let’s hire some agencies to create commercial and ads to build brand awareness to the site” “Nope, you only have 6 days” “6 days?...” “yup” “ well the 5 million you get from going to your homepage, link them to another high volume page, there’s your 10 millions” “how do you know they will click on any link there ?”..... .... at this point I just reiterate everything and we move. This is what happened for 45 minutes straight. By far the worst interview/interviewer I’ve ever had. He literally spent 45 minutes creating impossible use cases and rejecting EVERY answer I gave while making things up on the fly. The whole time having a smirk on his face. Fun fact: after leaving a voice mail and telling me they passed on me because my 5+ years of SEO, web development, SEM, PM, training, seminars, IT, blah blah blah, experience wasn’t enough, I called back once right after the voicemail was left, again 30 minutes later, and left an email and no response. Oh, but she did say she we connected on LinkedIn... but I think the in messaging doesn’t work because I didn’t get a connection request... hmm TLDR; To higher management: Watch who is in charge of hiring talent, because you may be letting a lot slip through the cracks because of incompetent leadership with personal agendas. What I think happened: I NEVER play the race card because I’ve already made it in corporate America so I disqualify myself, but I am half black and white. I’m hoping this didn’t affect his decision. From the eye look away, clearly unprofessional interview in which he tried his hardest to make me angry and frustrated which didn’t work unfortunately, not looking at my LinkedIn beforehand, using the “experience” excuse which is completely false, them admitting I was only they brought in, I hope It wasn’t because of this. Maybe he felt threaten by my talent? Who knows.