Smallpdf interview questions

I had my technical interview with the VP of Growth, and for something positioned as a deep dive into technical SEO and AI visibility, there wasn’t a single question on AI or visibility. This wasn’t a technical deep dive. He didn’t cover crawling, indexing, or Core Web Vitals, and didn’t ask what makes a page rank highly today. There were no questions around my strategy or what drives commercial content and revenue. Even setting up the interview was difficult, with multiple reschedules and cancellations, which didn’t reflect well on the business. During the interview, he was taking notes manually, repeatedly asking the same questions and pausing the conversation, which disrupted the flow and made it hard to stay focused. By the end, I didn’t feel confident about moving forward or working with him. Despite that, I later received feedback saying I wasn’t “deep enough” in my technical responses — but based on what was actually asked, it’s unclear how that was assessed.

Interviewed with the hiring manager and then with the VP of growth. Got a generic rejection: "After reviewing your interview with the hiring team, we’ve decided to move forward with candidates whose technical background and and skills align more closely with what we need for this particular role at this time." Obviously a lie because Kyle (VP growth) just posted on linkedin that he's searching for a Head of SEO. I don't mind not getting the job, but the dishonesty isn't cool. Dodged a bullet I guess.