I've been living in Germany for about 10+ years. I know the culture very well and speak fluent German. I've also lived in several other countries.

However when applying for positions in Germany I'm normally surprised by the confrontative style presented by the interviewers.

Examples of that:

- The (well-known, market leader) company I currently work for was incredibly criticised. The interviewer spent 5 minutes talking about its problems and why it's doomed to fail. When I tried to add a few words he didn't let me screaming over me.

- Interviewers pose a doubtful thesis ("you don't need a marketing strategy for innovations, innovations sell themselves very well without marketing") and are angry when I say I'm not sure if I would agree with them on that. They don't let me say a word.

- Interviewers who interrupt my every answer.

- Interviewers who ask simply incredibly detailed questions about their company or some tool/ working methods. I do prepare for interviews but I've already had an interview for which I prepared one week long - yes! I took a week off and prepared 8 h a day, reading all news about them, their strategy and structure, their sales figures etc. - and during which I was still surprised by a very detailed question. And they always react as if I committed a crime because e.g. I didn't guess correctly what % of their sales is in Asia. This is for me confrontative as I always have the impression they are questioning me as long as they need to fail me. And honestly, applying for several positions it's not so easy to prepare that well for interviews - and it's a waste of time given I've already had interviews for which I prepared really a lot and when the interviewer came in it was immediately visible they hated me.

- Interviewers who react very badly to my questions. My questions are quite standard I would think. They concern the team, company structure, sometimes some current event affecting the company. I've already been told I should have googled that (it was an answer to my question about the organisational culture)

I don't know whether it is about the recruiting culture, maybe it is really harsher than in other Western countries. Or maybe I have bad luck/ unrealistic expectations.

But how to react to such a behavior? I'm not a sensitive snowflake but after every interview in Germany I feel totally worn-out and every other interview I feel like getting up during the interview and telling the interviewers I would never want to work with them anyway. I work mostly with Germans so I know the direct style and I have rarely had problems with it. But the interviews are killing me.