How do I turn them down politely, next time they call?

[BecauseIsaidS0]

I will try to make a long story short:

I work in a STEM field. Started out as very, very technical, but as years have passed (15) I've taken on more managerial roles. In my last job, my split was about 50/50 hands on/management. I have had diverse jobs in many different aspects of my discipline, so while I am not an expert in one particular sub-discipline, I'm a really good generalist and a "big picture" person.

Now, there is this company who are supposed to be the golden standard in the field, famous for being very stringent in their hiring process. They first called me some 10 years ago, and I turned them down as I had just started a new job. Then I called them a few years later, but did a very jet lagged phone interview with NY that didn't go well. They then called me again, later, and I just went along out of curiosity, the feedback after the first interview was that I was amazing, so they whisked me in for a full day.

Now, the thing is, their interview process is based on very academic questions, so the people that do well are the ones right out of University or the ones that have taken a few months to prepare. I was busy with my job at the time, so even though the feedback was generally positive, I didn't get a job offer. I was quite gutted, since by then I'd got excited about the prospect of working for them.

And guess what, they just called me again, saying that I have the right profile and experience for them. I was quite straightforward and told them that I just will not do that well in their technical interview because I've been growing into management roles. They said not to worry, they are recruiting for managers too. And then they went and asked me a few extremely technical questions, which I floundered.

So I've just had it - it is clear to me that I'm never going to be of the caliber they want, and every time we speak it ends up in disappointment on my side. What do I do the next time they call me? Because they will.

Or maybe they won't, and it just want to vent because I feel frustrated by the whole thing.

Can you take control of this? Send CV if necessary and a letter explaining your current status. Explain that you would be interested in a role that matched this experience, but that you do not expect to be in one that requires recent technical knowledge?

They have my CV, my LinkedIn info and all the results of the tests I did in all my previous interviews. This last time, I explained to them that I would only considere a management role that required technical experience but not academic, fresh-out-of-college experience. And they still went ahead with the academic questions.