I completed an hour of online tests before the interview. The interview itself lasted around 30 minutes and was described as “speed dating,” which did not feel like a proportionate use of time given the preparation required. The interviewer also placed notable emphasis on the team being an “all-woman team” in a “man’s world.” This was surprising because, during my previous employment there, my manager was female and the team was already predominantly female. The focus on gender left me questioning whether there may be a recruitment bias, whereas my own view has always been that background is irrelevant and the priority should be hiring the best people. What concerned me most was that my prior tenure and results were not acknowledged or explored. I had previously launched two B2B units and increased the sales run rate by 300 percent in under 12 months. None of this was referenced during the process. Receiving only a generic rejection email underlined how impersonal the process felt. It also reinforced something I had suspected since my redundancy: the assurances from several Board members at the time that I was “a great fit” and someone they would “happily work with again” were simply empty platitudes rather than genuine commitments.