The interview process was fairly standard for this type of role. Due to the nature of the product, a strong understanding of vanilla JavaScript was required—more advanced than a typical technical support engineer position but a great fit for someone between that and a junior software engineer role. I went through five interview rounds over five weeks, speaking with a recruiter, a team lead, a manager, and finally, the head of HR. Throughout the process, everyone was warm, understanding, and respectful. Unfortunately, after all that time, I received a call from the recruiter informing me that upper management had decided to pause all hiring. They mentioned that they would have moved forward with me if not for this decision, which was tough to hear. Spending five weeks going through an extensive process, only to be told the offer can’t go through, was a frustrating experience. They were very apologetic and even received a personal apology from one of the interviewers who I connected with.