I hate the job market.
I've been unemployed a little over a year now and I just had a series of interviews for a medical manufacturing company (one of the largest in the world) for a Quality Assurance position. The position wasn't entry-level, but it was still below my previous middle management levels of work. But I've been unemployed for a year and change, so I'll take what I can get now.
I breezed through the screening and went into the office for a skills assessment, then had a zoom conference with the three hiring managers. During that call, they continually told me I was overqualified for the position and asked me why I wanted this job.
The first thing I asked them was if they were hiring for a higher level that would fit me, they said no.
Then I confirmed with them that after six months I could be promoted to the position that was closer to my previous experience levels, and they said yes, with one of the hiring managers saying that he started at the job I applied for.
From there they kept pushing me by telling me how difficult the job would be and saying that I would be overqualified for it and that would be difficult for me to adjust to the level lower than what I was used to.
I was getting a bit fed up, so I asked them if they would prefer to hire someone with less experience than me or someone who would do a good job and would be able to take on more responsibility in the future so they could promote internally rather than look for people outside the company to take on managerial roles. Of course, they told me the latter.
A week later, they send me an offer, not for the job I applied to, but to an entry-level position for less money and assuring me that I could work my way up to the position I had applied to in only a year's time.
I emailed them back saying how unprofessional what they did was and I don't want to work in such a company that treats people like how they did to me.