I was interviewing for a FIX Analyst role. 4 months prior I worked at CME doing FIX and Binary messages and working with clients to pass tests to trade on CMEs applications so basically exactly what Dash does except on a much larger scale. The interview went the best that I could have asked for and no call back. I was so lost after this as it went the entire hour and the hiring manager talked the entire time and we had a great rapport. I was just dropping FIX tags so they decided to test me and asked me to take a quiz to which I agreed. She shared her screen and there were three FIX messages there. The first one I said 35=D that’s a New Order Single then knocked down every tag from price to side to handling instructions. I missed maybe a couple tags of the entire two full messages that I was quizzed on. Well obviously I do not remember every tag, but I definitely know how to read a FIX message and tell you what is wrong with it. The other guy in the interview had a similar background of mine as an ex trader and was very nice as well. He stated ‘well you definitely know your stuff’ and had no questions for me. I believe the recruiter could have played a role in blowing it as I asked for their emails so I could instantly send them thank you emails. Instead I had to find them on LinkedIn to thank them there, if they even saw it. The recruiter said let’s not get ahead of ourselves, which was beyond bizarre. After my chasing a full week for feedback the recruiter stated "they passed, and did not think your FIX knowledge was strong enough." I have to laugh at this as it was all I did for 15 months straight and know it like the back of my hand. I also dissect the binary message if issue can not be solved looking at the FIX message. This was one of the weirdest and hardest let downs to swallow. I enjoyed what I did at CME and Dash looked like a way to continue working on customer facing issues and questions regarding FIX messages. The worked that I did at CME was the most fun since trading.