He ignored the receptionist. She was the hiring manager.

A post on r/LifeProTips collecting over 46,000 upvotes described a hiring manager who sat at the front desk before interviews, posing as the receptionist. One candidate walked in, barely made eye contact, gave clipped one-word answers, and treated her "like she was beneath him." When he reached the conference room and believed he was speaking to the real decision-maker, his personality transformed — warm, engaged, relaxed. Too late. The hiring manager had already seen everything she needed. As one commenter noted: the trick is to be a decent person all the time, so you never have to fake it.