The recruiting manager contacted me to move forward with an interview one week after submitting my application: "I'm reaching out from the hiring team here at USA TODAY Co. regarding your recent application for our Sr. AI Learning & Enablement Manager role. We are thrilled to inform you that you have been flagged as a strong candidate for the position. To kick off our dialogue and get to know you better, we would appreciate it if you could take a few moments to answer the attached questions. This will help us gain a clearer understanding of your current situation and career goals. As we are in the early stages of filling this vacant position, your timing couldn't be better. We are eager to learn more about you and discuss how you may fit into our team. Please feel free to return your responses at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your interest in joining USA TODAY Co.. We look forward to hearing from you soon." I was excited about this opportunity and wanted to be sure the interview captured my experience and goals truthfully so we could determine if we were a good fit *during the interview,* as I took this email in good faith ad an invitation to do just that. I spent a good amount of time providing meticulous details on the (quite long) list of questions that felt like an interview, itself. One week later, I received a Workday rejection with zero contact. Clearly, the company used the questionnaire as a pre-screening tool rather than a way to formalize interview questions to dive more deeply into the applicant's provided background. I found this incredibly unprofessional and a waste of time, which nobody has in the brutal job market we are in. I understand employers are faced with thousands of applicants they need to screen out at every step, but framing it as a "get to know you" prior to an interview is dishonest if the plan is to reduce applicants prior to a deeper conversation. This process should be transparent so the applicant can determine how much time to allot to the (again, extremely long) questionnaire. This experience was so incredibly distasteful to me that, as a long-time USA TODAY reader, I will no longer consume anything by the outlet and its affiliates, as I do not believe they can be trusted to be transparent, honest, and fair in their journalism or other media. Truly a disappointing and negative experience.