Interviewed for an Enterprise Vendor Services Manager role and honestly one of the more disappointing interview processes I’ve experienced in recent years. The hiring manager interview was scheduled for roughly 30 minutes for a role involving vendor governance, third-party risk management, client relationship management, operational coordination, escalations, and cross-functional leadership. That alone was a red flag because there simply was not enough time for a meaningful evaluation of experience or fit at this level. The interview itself felt extremely unstructured. The hiring manager openly stated she had just come out of another meeting and appeared rushed and distracted throughout the conversation. There were repeated interruptions, coughing fits, unfinished questions, loss of train of thought, and multiple moments where the conversation drifted without direction. What stood out most was the lack of clarity around the actual role. When asked what a normal day looked like, the explanation largely boiled down to “emails, meetings, chasing COIs, and client escalations,” with very little detail around KPIs, workload expectations, portfolio ownership, systems, operational metrics, or how success is actually measured. Ironically, many of the behavioral questions appeared to get skipped because my prior answers had already organically addressed them during conversation, which further reinforced how loosely structured the interview process was. The strange part is that after such a short and fragmented interview, the company somehow concluded that other candidates “more closely matched the requirements.” It’s difficult to understand how any organization can make a truly informed decision for a professional-level role after a rushed 30-minute conversation that lacked structure and depth. On the positive side, the recruiter was professional and personable throughout the process. Unfortunately, the actual hiring manager interview felt far less polished and far less organized than expected for a company operating in vendor and risk management services.