I applied online at the BMO website, after encountering the vacancy on LinkedIn. Three rounds of interview. Applied on August 30, 2022. Had first interview on the 14th. Had second interview on September 28. Received an email the next day that they wanted a third round (all virtual, by the way) on October 5. Initial stages went quite well, and had it stopped there my overall rating would have been "Positive." The reason for the bad taste in the mouth was how the process eventually ended. The final interview was ridiculous. Basically, the interviewer gave a very distinct impression that he had already made up his mind even before the interview, and the video call was just a formality. In particular, he repeatedly tried to emphasize the fact that I had no banking background as a "big" point. I found that absolutely ridiculous. The fact that I do not come from a banking background was abundantly clear from my resume and application, where the word "bank" literally does not appear even once. If having a banking background was essential to the role, then (a) this is something that should be clearly stated in the advertised job description, (b) if not stated in the JD, it should have at least been caught in the initial screening process, (c) if not in the screening process, it should have been brought up in the first interview, and (d) if not at any of the above steps, it should definitely have been brought up by the second interview. The fact that this point wasn't brought up by anyone at any stage and was only suddenly an "issue" at the THIRD round of interview is laughable and, frankly, unacceptable. It leads me to one of two conclusions: either the people involved at all the earlier stages are doing a bad job and aren't aware of the requirements and the process is a failure, or the point raised in the third interview was nonsense, banking experience is not a must, and interviewer was trying to make an issue of nothing. The final point which left a bad taste in my mouth, is the lack of communication or updates after the final interview. Following weeks of silence, I wrote a follow up inquiry for an update, and received absolutely no response. After ANOTHER 2 weeks, I finally get a rejection in the form of a generic, system-generated message. You know, the kind of message candidates get from the system when they didn't even get through the screening process? That kind of system message. It is unbelievably discourteous and HIGHLY unprofessional to resort to just a generic message, and not send a personalized (even if brief) email when a candidate has gone deep enough in your consideration to reach the third round of interview. You simply DO NOT send a generic message at that stage.