I interviewed for a Key Account Director position (Diagnostics/Pharma Partnerships) through an external search firm. The process ran for months across multiple rounds and required substantial preparation on account strategy and the company’s diagnostics portfolio. The outcome — an internal hire, a mid-process rescope of the role to a more transactional profile, and no substantive feedback — suggests external candidates were serving as a benchmark for a decision that was largely internal from the start. If that reading is wrong, the alternative explanation is a hiring process that lacked a clear definition of the role it was hiring for; neither reflects well on how the organization makes decisions. Neither the internal-candidate situation nor the rescope was communicated proactively. External candidates were left investing significant time against a target that had effectively moved. Advice to the company: If a role is leaning internal or being redefined, pause external interviews or be transparent about it. Engaging a search firm to run external candidates through a months-long process against a substantially pre-made decision wastes candidates’ time and the company’s money. The diagnostics world is small — today’s candidate is tomorrow’s counterpart at a pharma account. Advice to candidates: Ask directly, and early, whether internal candidates are in process, and whether the role’s scope is finalized. The opacity here was the core problem.