This was an interview loop for a role in which the recruiter reached out to me. The recruiter had a robust job description to work off of, but they deferred much of the role specifics to the hiring manager.
Arranging a meeting with the hiring manager was challenging. It took over a week of back and forth emails with the recruiter to lock something down - not the worst experience ever, but far from easy.
The call with the hiring manager was a disappointment. At a company where interview process is clearly left to the person hiring for the role, I was surprised that they approached a Director-level role with very basic and formulaic situational inquiries. While these types of questions can be great springboards into organic discussions, the hiring manager declined to engage beyond my initial answers, and moved on quickly after my initial feedback.
During the recruiting call, I was told the hiring manager sought me out personally on LinkedIn. On the day of the interview, they were late to the call, cut a meeting scheduled for 45 minutes down to 25 minutes, left no time for my questions, and showed very little interest in anything other than getting through the session quickly.
Radio silence from the recruiter for the next two weeks bookended an overall neutral experience.
I have gone through the process of hiring dozens of times in my career. I've often seen highly qualified candidates passed along to me who I knew wouldn't be a good fit for a variety of reasons. Hopefully this hiring manager learns to say "no" to their recruiter in the future, rather than waste everyone's time going through the motions.