1) I submitted my resume online to the Cisco careers web site. 2) A few weeks later, a Cisco recruiter contacted me to set up a date and time for a phone screen with the hiring manager. 3) Phone Screen #1 with the hiring manager lasted 20 minutes. I could tell he wanted to get off the phone quickly because he didn't give me a chance to ask any questions at the end -- I don't know if he was just busy or just not that interested in me. He started off the interview with the standard "Tell me about yourself." and then the rest of the 20 minutes was spent discussing different design ideas for their product (I had spent time reviewing product information before the interview, so I felt prepared to offer some insights). 4) The recruiter asked me to call him after the phone screen and report back how it went (I said it went well - and I honestly believed it did). He said the next step would be a fly-up interview if the hiring manager was interested in me. 5) A week later, the recruiter contacted me to say that the process was changing and that they were now going to do second phone screens with one of the lead members of the team. 6) Phone Screen #2 was with one of the lead team members and lasted 40 minutes. Again, pretty standard interview where she wanted to discuss what aspects of my past experience were related to the position and she gave me a better sense of the kind of work involved in the role. She ended the call by stating that she'd follow-up in about 1 week with next steps. 7) I didn't hear a word from anyone, not even the recruiter for 4 weeks. And then I received an automated rejection notice. I felt a bit led-on and it soured my opinion of this team -- I think they could have been more professional about contacting me sooner, even if it was to say that they were still considering other people.

Approximately 3 weeks after applying, recruiting requested availability to schedule a 30-minute video interview with the hiring manager (interview wound up being less than 25 minutes, as as the hiring manager showed up late and had a hard stop). One week later, recruiting sent a generic "thanks but not thanks" email.