I was contacted by a recruiter who explained that the job not only paid well, but would also nearly guarantee significant pay raises within 90 days. After two conversations with the recruiter, I met with the Associate Director of Talent Acquisition via Webex. This conversation was a typical first-round discussion -- she was able to answer difficult questions about the company's reputation. She said she appreciated the frankness of the questions, but told the recruiter that she interpreted the questions as a sign that I was not "excited" about the position. Finally, I met a Senior Managing Director and Senior Director for an in-person interview. The recruiter prepared me for the interview by strongly encouraging me to compliment the building. The conversation started out well, but took a turn for the worse when I asked about "work-life balance." The chief interviewer became visibly agitated by the question and said that he was not going to make excuses for hard work. He preferred to describe the issue as a "work-life integration" and said he would not be working for AlliantGroup if the integration wasn't workable. This was not a helpful answer, but I believe he did not intend it to be helpful because he was offended that I would ask about the issue in the first place. I have the impression this is a very touchy topic for this organization. One last note: when I asked him to tell me a bit about the employees who were working within view, he discussed only to male employees. It wasn't until the second interviewer intervened that he was able to tell me about a female employee. And the second interviewer, a woman, was not encouraged in any way to ask questions during the interview. It was uncomfortable. When the interviewers left the room, they said someone would be by to talk about next steps, but that did not happen. I was shown the door and within a few minutes I received a call from the recruiter telling me they had "passed" on hiring. The feedback was that I was "too cautious" during the interview and focused too much on learning about the company rather than "selling" myself. I was also "not competitive enough." The entire process from first call to finish took just more than a week.