A phone conversation with the HR. A brief description about Hyper Anna the company and "Anna" their digital data scientist. Questions about my background and previous experience. Mentioned Anna can be deployed on both Azure and AWS. When asked why, got a lot of text, instead of just letting me know, he did not know, red flag #1. He mentioned the different technologies used: Node, React, Scala, Spark, Python etc. When I pointed out the I am cool with all of it except Scala (which I might take time to pick up, cause FP just requires a different type of thinking), he just kept repeating about it being a start-up and how all developers need to do different things (to a person who already worked for a startup) etc etc, red flag #2. Finally he asked about salary expectations. This was a surprise, the recruiter had already mentioned what I was looking for. Yet based on this 20 min chat he decided I wasn't worth it. And just because I was open about my Scala skills, used it as a hammer repeatedly calling it a SKILL GAP. He threw about keywords like data science, ML etc, for the role of a Software Developer. (Yes I would like exposure to ML, but in the end you are recruiting me as a Software Engineer.) Pointers:- - Do not ask technical questions to the recruiter, he doesn't know anything on the tech side, but sadly will still try to answer with something unrelated. - No need to be open about any gaps in the skill set in HR round (If asked mention you know everything under the sun). He has zero idea what it requires to master each skill and will just use it as a hammer to lower your salary expectations. He used the phrase SKILL GAP at least 5 or 6 times when talking about salary. Open up about your gaps in the tech round though since devs would be able to connect to what you are speaking and whether you would be good fit. - HR arbitrarily asks you to lower your salary expectation. Just like me another, friend of mine was asked to reduce the salary as well after a 20 min chat, no tech round, no test, why?... go figure.