EverC uses an external recruiting firm, so I was originally contacted about this role through LinkedIn. I received very positive/encouraging feedback, and was quickly scheduled for 4 more interviews with various managers. In one of the interviews, I was asked to perform a competitor content benchmarking exercise and present my findings to this individual and the CRO after I returned from vacation the following week. I texted the recruiter as soon as I got home to firm up details on the day and time for the presentation, and only then did she inform me that they had decided to hire an internal candidate for the role during the 5 days I was traveling… this, after I’d been told by everyone I interviewed with that they were building the marketing team in the US from the top down, and that nobody had been with EverC longer than 6 months. I skipped my company’s All Hands meeting to interview with them. I rearranged my schedule to carve out time to research and organize the presentation they requested. Being told that they hired someone while I was on vacation was frustrating enough, but it felt like a real slap in the face to learn that they had “promoted someone within the organization,” as I’d learned from one of the employees I interviewed with that they had not invested heavily in marketing staff thus far and had been working on building the US team from nothing. Overall, this interview process made me feel used, confused, and comforted in knowing that I’d dodged a bullet.