I was told by the hiring manager that an offer was being prepared for me, but a week later, I was told they were moving in a different direction with the position and not moving forward with my candidacy...
The interview process was horrible. I applied for the position on May 9th. The final round interview was at the end of June. The hiring manager told me they had another candidate scheduled for that week, and the decision would be made by July 3rd, since he was going out of the country for 3 weeks on vacation, and they wanted the selected candidate to start when he returned at the end of July. An interview with the Chief of Staff to the CEO was scheduled as TBC on the itinerary. When I asked about that, the hiring manager told me they hoped I would be able to meet with him before the decision was made, but it was OK if not. I didn't hear back from HR until July 5th after following-up, and I was told the decision hadn't been made yet. The following week, I was told that I was a strong candidate and still in the running, but they wanted to interview additional candidates. I stated that if I wasn't being offered the position, I would like to move on with my search and take myself out of consideration. The hiring manager told me he understood if waiting till August 2nd when the decision would be made didn't work for my time frame, but he hoped that I could hold on until then. On August 2nd, HR was still trying to schedule me for a chat with the Chief of Staff to the CEO for August 5th. The hiring manager then called me and told me they were putting together an offer for me, and the last hurdle in the process was speaking to the Chief of Staff to the CEO on Monday, but he wasn't worried about it. He stated that I should expect the offer on Tuesday or Wednesday. My HR representative was out on vacation, so another HR representative was putting together the offer for me over the weekend, as the hiring manager had asked her to do. I spoke with her on Saturday regarding salary. Wednesday rolled around, and I hadn't heard anything. The hiring manager was in the UK, but he had given me his cell phone number so I could call him if anything went wrong with the offer. I called him on Thursday morning to follow-up. He thought I was HR calling, but when I identified himself, he said he would follow-up with HR to find out what the problem was. Later in the day, I called the HR replacement who had put together the offer over the weekend, and she told me I needed to speak with the original HR rep. When I spoke with him, he had no idea where we were in the process, that I had been told an offer was being put together for me, that the other HR rep had been working on the offer, etc. A few hours later, I was told that they were moving in a different direction for the position and my candidacy was no longer moving forward.
This is the worst interview process that I have ever been a part of. There was a lack of communication between HR and the hiring manager throughout the whole process, with HR never knowing what had been communicated to me. It was a huge waste of my time and quite the emotional roller coaster to be told I was being offered the position but then not actually given the offer.