I began the interview process in June when a recruiter contacted me about the position and set up a phone screening. She was kind and nice to talk to, and we had a great conversation. She let me know at the end of our call that I would hear back from the hiring manager soon to set up an interview. Two weeks later I received that call. We set up an interview two weeks out (now we are in July). This interview was...fine? The two hiring managers were nice enough at first but clearly uninterested in me from the start. Could not hold decent poker faces when I answered a question in a way they didn't like and made it obvious that they thought I was in over my head. One of them tried to "gotcha" me with every follow-up question, as if he could get me to fumble or second guess myself. It was awkward and I left the interview believing I'd receive a rejection email shortly. A few days later the other hiring manager reached out to me to let me know I should hear back by the end of the month since I'm a top candidate (surprised by that). Alright, I didn't think it'd be good news, but I figured I'd just await their feedback and go from there. End of July comes and goes. I accept that I've probably been ghosted and move on with my life. 10 or so days into August, the hiring manager calls me and asks if we can have another interview...to basically "refresh" their memory of me as a candidate because it's been so long since the last interview (a month). I figure sure, why not, I'm not 100% opposed to continuing this process (big mistake!). We schedule another interview for a week out. This interview was fine, just follow-ups to the previous interview questions. We ended up having a lot of conversations about hypotheticals (what a day in the life would be like, who would train me, how the team dynamic is). Hiring manager lets me know I should hear back by next week (remember, this is now mid August). The next week I wait. And wait. And wait. And...nothing. I come to you now at the END OF SEPTEMBER with my rejection email in my inbox! Funnily enough, this isn't a "thank you for interviewing, but we've gone with another candidate" email - it's a "the position has been filled" email. They couldn't bother to actually reject me, just to make the ATS dispose of the candidates who weren't chosen without an acknowledgment of the time put into this nearly FOUR MONTH process. This experience has unfortunately soured my view of Travelers. While at one point this was a company I dreamed of working for, I now advise that anyone reading this steer clear.

I spoke with a recruiter who shared more about the role and asked about my employment history as laid out on my resume. The recruiter reached out about two weeks after I applied for the job even though I received an automated rejection email within three days of applying. I ended up withdrawing from the process.