I think I know who you are talking about. He was unfailingly polite with me, but it was very clear that he was not very interested too. I also was coming back from a semi-academic position.
Do not be very hard on you (or him). Every job opening I interview candidates for we receive piles and piles of academia refugees, mostly postgrads fleeing their postdocs. They tend to know very little about software (or domain knowledge of our field) but they will try anything: junior, senior and even managerial roles. Signal to noise tends to be very low, so any competitive places ignore most of them. It is a problem for competent people in this life situation, because they get ignored too.
Good analysis of how recruiters ignore university refugees and recent graduates. Which is why I had to throw most of my 5 years of uni studies always and get a job in IT, which I was trying to run away from. But hey! At least I am extremely good at it.
Do not be very hard on you (or him). Every job opening I interview candidates for we receive piles and piles of academia refugees, mostly postgrads fleeing their postdocs. They tend to know very little about software (or domain knowledge of our field) but they will try anything: junior, senior and even managerial roles. Signal to noise tends to be very low, so any competitive places ignore most of them. It is a problem for competent people in this life situation, because they get ignored too.