Awful experience with a CEO

I had the actual worst interview of my life yesterday. For context I’m a seasoned executive assistant and the person conducting the interview was the CEO.

Their job listing read well and their in-house recruiter was great to talk to. Their CEO however was awful.

He showed up 40 minutes late. We talked for all of 20 minutes. He was rushed the entire time. He texted the entire time and would periodically lift his head to ask ‘what else should I know about you?’

Their recruiter told me it paid $90,000 although their actual range is a lot lower. $90,000 would be the top of their range.

He asked if I had kids and then proceeded to ask who was taking care of the kids if both my husband and I are working. Umm what?

Included generic desires like wanting someone to hit the ground running and wanting someone to keep everything organized but did not describe or explain anything toward what a typical day is like. Made a big deal out of wanting someone to start in two weeks which is rushed considering they said they’re interviewing a lot of candidates but also bizarre considering most assistants would give a two week notice.

Their ‘preference’ for a spanish speaking person should really be listed as a requirement based on their reaction to me not being spanish speaking. Seems silly considering all other staff that was there was in-fact spanish speaking. He obviously did not read the notes from his recruiter either because we’d covered that already.

Their recruiter then reached out saying he thought the interview went so well and they’d be in touch within the next week. I did politely let their recruiter know how the interview actually went. I realize they’re an employee and their actual ability to manage any behaviors is limited but I thought they were really nice and didn’t want to ghost them.

The 2026 job hunt is hell, y’all.