I contacted the company by mail even though there was no offered position on the website. I was interested in the product and the perspective of working in a startup. I found the product genuinely great and looked forward to meeting the team.
After two weeks, I was invited to an interview on site, in Paris. The interviewers were 3: the CEO, the chief commercial officer and the chief project officer. They first asked questions about what I had done in my previous work experiences. They then asked me to go to the whiteboard and present first the business of my last work experience, then what I would have improved and finally how I would have convinced a board to do so. They were chatting or watching their phones, obviously trying to destabilize me so I did not worry much about that.
The chief commercial officer seemed well-disposed towards me, asking relevant questions but the CEO was curt, self-important and patronizing. He obviously mocked what I had done and the project I had worked in. He then asked me about my motivations even though he had not told me anything about the company and the type of jobs available. Seeing that I did not have a clear career plan, he literally made fun of me in front of his colleagues and told me that I did not have any ambition whatsoever. He then boasted about his own ambitions when he was my age. I was flabbergasted by such a reaction so I quickly ended up the interview and left. This gave me a terrible impression about the firm and the top management. I then emailed them that I did not wish to continue the process.
