I applied for a hybrid role at Accenture, based out of their Newcastle office. I live 2 hours away, and intended to commute up on the first day, use hotels or airbnbs, and commute back. The recruiter saw my CV and location and invited me to an Introductory Microsoft Teams call (30 minutes long). I spent the morning preparing, polishing up my knowledge, reading interview questions, getting myself presentable, and anxiously watching the clock, unable to do much else. I got into the call and it was over within 2 minutes because "We aren't recruiting anyone outside of Newcastle for this role." I told them, "It doesn't say this in the job description," and they shrugged at me. I told them I planned to commute and use airbnbs, and they told me "That's not going to work," and the call was over. This was a MASSIVE waste of time and energy. This could have been resolved in a message - or, better yet, I could have just been rejected, as is typical when one is not eligible for a role they've applied to. It is so frustrating to be bait and switched like this. Really disappointed with this process.

First there was a very quick "pre-screening" with a non-technical recruiter covering questions such as salary expectations, then an interview with the 2 people from the hiring team in which I was asked to present work from my portfolio