So I just had one of the weirdest and most frustrating interviews ever, and I need to rant.

I was interviewing for a Co-op role at a company, and like any normal, prepared candidate, I looked up my interviewer on LinkedIn beforehand as I was told who it would be. You know, to get a sense of his background, find some common ground, and be better prepared.

Well, at the start of the interview, this guy straight-up calls me out and says, “So, you stalked me on LinkedIn”

I thought LinkedIn was a professional networking site made for this exact reason. How is checking your public profile before an interview “stalking”? If anything, it means I cared enough to prepare instead of just showing up clueless.

I had studied all the new concepts based on the job description that I didn’t know, thinking that’s what they’d focus on. But at the beginning, the guy casually says, “I don’t care about the job description and the information we provided.”

I studied for two days prepping based on the role they advertised, and here he is grilling me on completely random topics that weren’t even hinted at in the job post. No questions about my work experience, projects, or actual skills, just technical questions thrown at me.

I get that I should have some baseline knowledge, but I’m a student. Why are they expecting expert-level knowledge for a co-op role?

At this point, the whole thing felt like a waste of time. If you don’t care about your own job description, why even bother posting one? And calling someone out for doing basic interview prep.

Maybe I’m wrong for over-prepping or looking him up because I liked the company and thought the job description sounded cool but after this experience. Am I in the wrong?

So I just had one of the weirdest and most frustrating interviews ever, and I need to rant.

I was interviewing for a Co-op role at a company, and like any normal, prepared candidate, I looked up my interviewer on LinkedIn beforehand as I was told who it would be. You know, to get a sense of his background, find some common ground, and be better prepared.

Well, at the start of the interview, this guy straight-up calls me out and says, “So, you stalked me on LinkedIn”

I thought LinkedIn was a professional networking site made for this exact reason. How is checking your public profile before an interview “stalking”? If anything, it means I cared enough to prepare instead of just showing up clueless.

I had studied all the new concepts based on the job description that I didn’t know, thinking that’s what they’d focus on. But at the beginning, the guy casually says, “I don’t care about the job description and the information we provided.”

I studied for two days prepping based on the role they advertised, and here he is grilling me on completely random topics that weren’t even hinted at in the job post. No questions about my work experience, projects, or actual skills, just technical questions thrown at me.

I get that I should have some baseline knowledge, but I’m a student. Why are they expecting expert-level knowledge for a co-op role?

At this point, the whole thing felt like a waste of time. If you don’t care about your own job description, why even bother posting one? And calling someone out for doing basic interview prep.

Maybe I’m wrong for over-prepping or looking him up because I liked the company and thought the job description sounded cool but after this experience. Am I in the wrong?