It is June 2026 and I just completed a recruiting cycle which involved the CEO, the owner, and their executive team consultant. In total, I spent 6 hours over two days interviewing with the aforementioned. After my interviews I submitted 20 questions which were not provocative; they were the type of questions that you ask when you are serious about taking the role. The questions were seemingly well received as the CEO scheduled a followup call to review my questions. We scheduled the meeting at the time the CEO suggested. He then did not show up at our meeting time. At fifteen minutes past our scheduled meeting time I called him to checkin. He apologized and asked if we could reschedule the meeting to 9am Saturday (the next day). I said sure with a flexible attitude. The CEO then ghosted the meeting the following day. During my interview with the owner he communicated that there was a structural obligation to work 6 days per week. The owner clearly had no idea of my background - he hadn’t familiarized himself with anything on my resume. He introduced me to his director of operations and then proceeded to criticize him as soon as we were out of earshot. The only question the CEO asked me was whether or not I smoked at work. He took me on a tour (which I’d already had). He seemed more interested in telling me that he no longer smoked weed at work like in his black market days. He said it allowed him to learn better. He expressed little curiosity about me during the entire interview. When I asked the consultant why there had been so much turnover in the position that I was interviewing for (4 in 4 years) he cavalierly recounted that he went through something like 3 CMOs in 4 years when he was running his company (as if that was standard turnover). He also suggested that the posted base salary for the position was incorrect. He shared that the posted base was more likely to be the target. It is worth noting that this consultant presided over one of the most spectacular failures in the history of CA cannabis. I noted no females in executive leadership roles. There was no HR person in evidence throughout the experience. I believe that how people recruit you is how they will treat you.