I had a recruiter phone screening with Ellucian that was among the strangest I've ever had in my 20+ years in the industry. The recruiter asked me a broad question about my technical problem-solving approach. I gave a detailed answer, but the recruiter kept coming back to the question, and appeared confused if not frustrated by what I was saying. The recruiter appeared to have a list of "buzz phrases" or topics -- I believe provided by the hiring manager -- that I was expected to touch on in my answer, and provided a couple of these to me as examples. One of these was "operational excellence" (?), which unfortunately didn't make a lot of sense, whether generally or in the context of the question. After going back-and-forth and patiently trying to provide an answer that was satisfactory, asking if perhaps the question could be rephrased, etc, my impression was that the recruiter was asking a broad, qualitative question, but given its technical nature didn't really understand the question, or my answers, or the "expected" answers. Subsequent to this the recruiter insisted that I provide a target salary before I could move forward as a candidate. I explained that I was broadly looking for market-rate compensation for the position, was sure we could come to a consensus on salary, but felt that it was too soon for me to quote a number. I was then asked to provide my current salary plus a raise. I politely declined and the recruiter ended the interview, informing me that I could get in touch if I wished to continue. If there ever was an example of how "hiring is broken" in tech this experience would surely qualify.