I applied for a position for a company my employer works with, and I also know who would be the prospective manager for that company. The position was a carbon copy of my current job, same industry, does the same thing, but would be better pay and full remote. Right now my company is a boots to the ground kind of place, and wants their engineers, who could be working remote and shown that it can be done (let's forget the pandemic never happened), refuses to let us work fully remote.
The first interview was a phone call with an HR guy and the prospective manager. Right at the beginning the HR guy brought up that they're getting used to the 50% remote schedule, and would like to know how I feel about that. I was caught off guard, but told them, I'm not looking to work a hybrid schedule, I'm more than an hour away, and if I were to work here I would want that position to be full remote. The HR guy asked if I could relocate, but the prospective chimed in and said, “because of her expertise in the field I would be willing to make an exception.” Which I appreciated, I even offered I would be willing to meet him the first week, but would like to work fully remote. Then we continued with the interview, he asked me a lot of specific and technical questions during the interview and it went well.
A month later I'm invited to an in-person panel interview, I would be meeting with the prospective manger (pm), the pm's colleague, and the pm's manager. I arrange my schedule so that I can make time for this. I get to the interview, take the designated seat that is facing everyone. The energy is different for me, and the pm talks like he's already my manager in front of the other two. The pm starts with saying he's going to ask me some technical questions, and I tell, oh go on ahead. And he asks me a very basic and fundamental question about how generation gets to the load, for context, I'm a power engineer, and have been for several years, and he knew that. Then he asks me an open ended question, which I take a stab at, he clearly wants me to get to the answer in front of his peers, and wants to show that he has gotten the credit for it. It turns out to be simple, but the way he asked it made it difficult to understand what he was asking at first. When it comes time for the others to ask me questions, I answer their questions well, but the pm always has something to add to it, or re-explains it as a simple thing that is very easy to do.
When we get to the end of the interview, and it's my turn to ask questions. I ask him how the full remote position would work. He says, “Working from home is a privilege, right now we offer hybrid, but for the first few months I would want you to come in as much as possible. Once we have established that working relationship and have built trust then I would consider full remote for you. Which would likely be after two years.”I didn't say anything, I just said, “I understand.” At that moment I completely checked out. Just wanted to get out of there. I felt completely undermined the entire interview, and felt like he was already pulling power moves, and I didn't even work for the guy. I'm not sure if I'll even get an offer based on how it went towards the end, but I don't think I'd even want to for someone who would tell me yes, then change his mind to no, and undermine me in front of his manager to make himself look good.