Applied for a backend engineering role. The initial recruiter screen felt entirely transactional and disconnected from what actually matters for a technical position. When asked about my background, I provided multiple distinct, concrete scenarios detailing the actual technical work, architecture, and optimizations I've delivered. Despite giving real engineering context, the recruiter completely brushed past it to hyper-fixate on rigid, generic checkboxes. To make matters worse, the conversation concluded with a dismissive comment about having a massive volume of candidates to shortlist. If a company treats engineering talent like a mere spreadsheet number on day one, it speaks volumes about the culture.