I had the weirdest experience. I had 4 different recruiters reach out to me with the role and to be fair I engaged with the one who was first.
I was happily employed by the indirect competitor, but I had a long-term interest in shifting my focus to a specific line of products so I accepted the interview.
I quite liked the company and what they were working on, but for some reason, I couldn't get much information about the role itself. The recruiter got me an interview with the company before I got a chance to ask any questions. Here in North America the etiquette is for recruiter to first discuss the role with the candidate to figure out if it's a fit, especially if the candidate is employed!
I had a really good first interview with product executives, but there wasn't much time left for me to ask questions. I told the recruiter that there are some things I would need answered before I decide whether to continue with the interview process. At that point I was told that I was the top candidate for the role, so I didn't want to waste everyone's time with another interview, if the role wasn't a good fit for me.
I was promised a short interview where me and the team could get to know each other better. Then both myself and they got busy so the process was paused, but eventually the recruiter emailed me the next step which was an assignment.
I looked it over and let him know that I am not willing to invest the amount of time it would require to complete the homework until I get more clarity on my outstanding questions.
He just stopped talking to me... Not even a thank you for taking the time to interview.
Overall, this was pretty rude to reach out to a person who has a job with a competing company, don't tell them enough about the role so they can see if it's a fit, avoid directly asked questions and then don't thank them for their time after they actually interviewed. Usually, good recruiters understand that they need to sell the candidate on the role if they are trying to poach... Ohs wells.
It's too bad, because the actual team seemed very nice and the company pretty cool.
The most amusing thing was that after all that, yet another recruiter reached out to me with the same role, probably meaning the team started the process over, while they could have just answered my questions and potentially continue the process..