They were very gung-ho about me until we sat down to start the interview. First thing I hear is I'm not a fit for the position I came in for. I thought, "why not tell me before"? Instead the interviewer says he is thinking of this other position. Great! However, this position does not yet exist nor does the group it would reside in. He said that right up front. OK I'll take a swing at that position.
However, instead of asking me questions about my experience and qualifications for this imaginary position it becomes an information gathering interview. What do you know about this industry or that industry, etc... I did get the full 60 minutes but the focus was not on me.
When the recruiter calls the next day she said sorry I was not a fit for the SE gig and that I had agreed to this assessment as well. Of course, if I am told there is another position that I might be qualified for and the interviewer has already told me to forget about the SE gig then I'm going to trying to land this new opportunity. However, she did not mention the non-existent position in the call. I think that position was made up on the fly for the interview.
The only thing that changed was I met the hiring manager in person. He had no idea of my age as my resume does not include 20 years of non tech experience. I think we can all figure out what is going on here.