A few years back Nike flew me to Portland to interview for the wrong job, a nightmare thread.

I was a brand designer at the time, doing brand design things. They asked me to come out and talk about design and see if I was a fit.

So I got there and was set up in a fancy hotel and was asked to be at the big fancy campus at 8am.

I got there at 8am and waited around a locked door for half an hour before a recruiting intern showed up and took me and 1 other interviewee on a tour of Nike’s campus and history

After the confusing history lesson I was escorted to an executive’s office. He had no idea why I was there. Neither did I. He was the global director of Nike’s entire brand. Like, serious shit.

“Why the hell would they have me interview with this guy he clearly has more important things to do” we both thought while making small talk over my design portfolio.

He was nice and visibly confused and he sent me across the campus to my next interview

It was about a 10 minute walk and I had no escort and got very lost.

I eventually found my way to my next interview where another confused man asked to see my portfolio.

“Where’s the UX stuff?” He said.

“I don’t do UX stuff, per se, I’m a brand designer I thought I was here for a brand position.”

“Oh” he said. “This is a UX director position” he said

We made awkward small talk while I wondered why I was there for a UX role when nothing in my anything says a word about UX and if I was there for UX then why set me up with the global brand fancy man?

Another confusing long walk to my next interview, where I was 5 minutes late for my lack of a guide or map or anything at all.

“I’ll let them know you’re here” the front desk person said

“Who are they?” I thought. I looked at my interview sheet and there were 4 names on it. I quickly emailed the recruiter

“Are these people expecting a UX presentation?”

“Yes. Do you not have that prepared?”

“I’d like to finish this interview now” I emailed, hoping someone would come rescue me from this hellscape.

I sat in that lobby for about 35 minutes, with no word from anybody, my face bright red and my heart beating through my chest

The recruiter took me to lunch, explained that the recruiting team had been fucking up lately.

We are salads where she gave me a *discount* to the on-campus Nike store.

I bought a sports bra and went back to my hotel

I needed to write this out, because it is the day that occasionally haunts me.

Like that recurring nightmare about the test you weren’t prepared for. But it was REAL YALL.

Anyways this is why recruiting practices are just as important as the product you’re building, Just do it lol

I am now laughing out loud realizing they never even emailed me to apologize or anything. Just sent me on my way with a gift card Jesus. It felt good to type that out thanks for listening, Twitter.

P.s. nowadays I work with an amazing recruiter @LEAHisKNOBLER who would never let anything like this happen