Undoubtedly one of the most disappointing experiences I have had ! I reached out to the hiring manager on LinkedIn in April. I was told by the manager that the person working in that role left and they are looking to hire ASAP. Soon after almost 2-3 weeks I heard from the HR to schedule the first round of interview. First round was a video interview and included talking to five different managers on Teams. The interview went well and felt like a normal conversation rather than a technical interview. I did not hear back from anyone after the interview for 2 weeks and after following-up with the manager I was told that the position has been put on hold.
The HR reached out to me again after 2 months to schedule an on-site interview. There was no confirmation for the on-site interview date until only two days were left for the interview. That was the first red flag and I should have realized it's not worth all the travel. I still decided to go.
On-site interview was okay. The manager was constantly looking at the clock and telling me he has limited time. Why do you have to call candidates on-site if you don't have enough time to interview them ?! Two days after the interview I received a rejection email from the HR saying I was rejected because I didn't have enough hands-on lab experience (even though I have spent more than half of my career in the lab working on different materials). I am not sure how none of the managers realized that I had less hands-on experience than they expected, and still called me for an on-site interview that turned out to be nothing but a waste of time. The whole process seemed disorganized and noone seemed to know what exactly they are looking for ! For a job that they wanted to fill immediately, they took 5-6 months for the interview process. I should have realized that they never wanted to hire me when the manager said in the first call that I don't seem to have enough hands-on experience with powder (even though I have worked in a company where we used to manufacture nothing but powder). Utter waste of time and very unprofessional, considering the time and energy we candidates put in interviewing such companies.