I applied for the position online in early August and received an email from the office manager about a phone interview three weeks later. The phone interview was with the Director of Government Relations, the office manager, and one of the Senior Advocates. It went well and I was emailed a little over a week later about coming in for an in-person interview. The in-person interview was with a panel of four people. Again, the interview went well and they asked questions related to my previous experience and strategy for the organization where it concerns interaction with US government. A week later, I received an email from the office manager asking me to complete a writing assessment as the third phase of the process. I was to create a US government strategy based on the policy recommendations set forth in RI's recent report on donor fatigue in the DRC. The assessment was challenging but interesting and I had 24 hours to complete it. The major downside, and the reason I rate the overall experience negatively, is that after a month long process and three phases of interviews, I did not receive any communication from RI for over a month and a half. I followed up via email three times to ask if they needed anything further from me and inquired about the time frame of the selection process going forward, yet received complete radio silence. Their office manager finally sent me an email letting me know that I was not selected for the position in mid-November. While I understand that they are a busy organization doing important work, their failure to send a quick email letting me know that they had not yet made a decision was unprofessional and disheartening. I hope that they can work on internal processes in the future to ensure that others aren’t left in the dark for so long.