I recently went through the interview process for a role at Gartner and was fortunate enough to make it to the final round. The interview team was professional, and I was told I could expect an update within 2–4 days. Those 2–4 days came and went with no email, phone call, or update. In fact, the only way I found out I wasn't selected was by logging into the candidate portal and seeing that my application status had changed. Not even an auto-generated rejection email. As someone who's spent years in Customer Success, I know communication matters. People understand they won't get every job they apply for. What they don't appreciate is being left to figure it out on their own. What I find ironic is that Gartner has built its reputation on helping organizations improve processes, customer experiences, and business relationships. Candidate experience should be no different. If you tell someone you'll follow up in 2–4 days, follow up. If plans change, communicate that. Even an automated email would have shown respect for the time and effort candidates invest in the process. This isn't about not getting the job. That's part of the game. It's about managing expectations and treating candidates with the same level of professionalism many of us are expected to provide our own customers every day. I hope Gartner takes a closer look at this part of its hiring process because candidate experience matters, too.

First round with a recruiter who clearly hadn’t read my CV prior to the interview, was reading questions off a checklist and didn’t appear to even listen to my answers. Awful experience and left an incredibly bad impression of what is supposedly a reputable company.