The process started well. A recruiter reached out, and they were very professional and kind. After our discussion, an interview was set with the hiring manager. That interview went well, and about a week later, it was requested that I provide a 30-minute presentation to a small group and 3 30-minute 1:1s following. I spent over 12 hours creating a PowerPoint presentation from scratch, outlining the product. I was given access to the content dashboard, but was in no way directed to provide a live demo of it. I provided the presentation to the team, which I considered flawless and covered the 3 things mentioned in the task overview and much more. The member of the first 1:1 told me they were disappointed I didn't demo live, and I was shocked since in no way was that listed as an expectation. They went on to grill me about why I'd left each prior job position and spoke nothing about why I might actually want to work there. The other 1:1 was pretty normal, and I was left feeling I had a good chance at the job. I then had to wait over a week just to find out I was rejected, along with the other candidate. I know we weren't the first to make it to this cumbersome project phase either. I find it incredibly inconsiderate and unprofessional the way they went about the vetting process. In the end, I was held hostage for close to a month, provided a good amount of unpaid labor, and wasn't even given the consideration of knowing I was being passed up until over a week after the final interview.
