Was asked to interview at the RL London, UK office by a recruiter, I sent my CV and an interview was arranged.
I arrived at the office on the arranged day / time to find that the two departmental managers I was meant to be meeting had no idea an interview had been arranged for that morning. Fortunately, the senior manager was very gracious and after some calls proceeded to interview me. He explained the role was replacing one that was based in Switzerland and was to be a forward-thinking fresh set of eyes to improve networking. After the interview, a secondary date was setup for the other manager to be able to interview me as well. Both interviews went well.
A 'final' telephone interview was setup with a manager based out of Switzerland. During the telephone interview the Swiss manager's manner was hostile, direct, and he tried his best to catch me out as he navigated the technical world of Cisco command line and network technologies, which I am very familiar with. He spent much time trying to ask supplementary questions after I had answered correctly to try and find some failing, and then fell over his own understanding when I had to explain why my answers were indeed correct. This was a horrible, hostile experience, and whilst I was to understand that this person was not my reporting manager, this experience put me off the company completely. I felt that the interviewer had some agenda that the earlier managers were not aware of.
Initial feedback was my technical answers were not satisfactory, which I was not surprised given the nature of the interviewer. I thought the matter concluded. After 3 weeks I was subsequently called by the recruiter offering me the role, which I promptly turned down. It's never good to work for a company who are happy to have such a hostile person in a senior position work with you. The company and recruiter tried their best to assuage my concerns, but I believe I dodged a bullet.
I think many inexperienced managers don’t realise that interviews are often a two-way process; prospective employees are assessing you as much as you are them.