I was contacted via email by the hiring manager one day after applying online, which was nice. We set up a phone interview for the following week. No initial pleasantries, just "Hello, can you explain what you do at your job?" right off the bat. A little weird, but fair enough. The call went well enough that by the end, I was asked to prepare a 30 minute presentation for my in-person interview which was to occur in two weeks. I was to talk in-depth about my current job responsibilities, detailing each step of my daily process and how long it takes me to complete each task.
On the day of the interview, I presented to about 10 people and answered some of their questions. Next, I had six 30-45 minute meetings with groups of 1-3 people (most had observed my presentation), a few of which I actually got along with really well. My last meeting was with the hiring manager, who I had talked with on the phone. It got a little strange here, and at one point I felt that some questions were somewhat accusatory and combative. Reasonable questions like "Why are you looking to leave your current job?" were followed with, "Well they taught you this and this, no?" after I answered that I felt like my learning had stagnated recently. I mentioned that my current supervisor had too much on their plate and was unable to give me the guidance on a particular subject I had been asking about. "Oh, so you fight with your boss?" was the response. It started to feel like my respectfully honest answers were being turned against me, and being the interviewee, I felt that I wasn't in a position to defend myself without sabotaging the interview.
I left with mixed feelings, but felt generally positive about the whole thing. I thanked everyone in an email and sent the hiring manager some information they had requested. Emailed them a couple weeks later to request an update on the status of the position, and was told that they were still interviewing. No problem. Another couple of weeks went by, so I emailed again, asking for another update, or at least when I could expect to hear by. No response. I waited a week, then contacted someone from HR that I had spoken with before, and I explained the situation. No response again! Still haven't heard back, and I don't expect to at this point.
I have to say, I'm all too familiar with being ghosted by companies, but this one stung a little more than the rest. After driving 13 hours round trip and preparing for weeks for my presentation, they didn't respect me or my time enough to give me a straight answer. I find that to be extremely unprofessional.
