Multiple times.
Once got a haircut and put on a suit to go to an in-person interview right after the dot-com stuff blew up and I was between gigs. During introductions I talked about my background as an engineer and the guy says, “Well we’re about to save your life–you won’t have to do that anymore!”
And from there I knew it was either a pyramid scheme or some kind of sales. I was actually pretty irritated that I’d showed up under false pretenses and they were wasting my time. I wasn’t shy about letting them know either. Not shy. At all.
Another time was just a few years ago. By this time, work from home was standard and pretty much all interviews were happening on Teams/Zoom. I put on a nice shirt and joined the meeting with my camera on. There were a couple of people interviewing me. They never turned their cameras on, and the conversation had a weird pace to it. No verbal queues made it even more strange. I basically told them, “I don’t think this role is a good fit for me, and I don’t want to waste any more of your time. Thanks for considering me, and good luck finding the right person.”
I did let the recruiter I was working with know the main reason though. I don’t expect people to be on camera all the time or anything, but if you have it available, it’s common courtesy when you’re first meeting someone. It definitely says a lot if you don’t use a camera in interviews–probably not the culture I’m looking for.
I wish this guys had asked, “Have you ever interviewed for a job you already knew you didn’t want, but went anyway because you needed a job?”