I interviewed with Gartner five separate times over about thirteen months, across different roles (Graduate Account Manager, SDP, and a DACH-focused BD role) and five different recruiters. Each round followed the standard format, an initial screening call with a recruiter, followed by a behavioral interview, and for the SDP role specifically, a second round built around STAR-style competency questions.
What stood out across all five rounds was the lack of continuity. Every recruiter ran the process as if I were a completely new applicant, with no reference to previous interviews, no notes carried over, and no acknowledgment that I had already been evaluated by the company before, sometimes for the same role.
The clearest example came after my first SDP rejection in 2025, when I received a templated email saying they saw potential and to check back in six months. About a year later, after completing a full second SDP interview process with a different recruiter, I was rejected again, this time with the exact same email, word for word. When I followed up and got a call to discuss it, I was told the rejection emails are automated due to high volume, which didn't explain why I'd been run through an entire new interview cycle instead of just being told that upfront. On that same call I also received feedback for the first time in five rounds, that I needed to improve how I communicate with C-suite stakeholders, something no prior recruiter or interviewer had ever raised.