To think this is a mean thing to do

[elephantwhale]

Just wanting an opinion really, maybe I am out of touch with how things are done.
Dd has recently graduated and is applying for jobs, has lots of work experience all quite varied.
She applied for a post in a company where she would really like to work.
Firstly a long telephone interview all fine. Then a call for a second interview which seemed to go well. Then a third interview which also seemed to go well. Then she was asked to come and meet the team she would be working with. So really 4 interviews for a very basic entry level job.
She had a few emails saying how much they had liked her and that they would have news for her at the end of the week. That was now three weeks ago. She did email a couple of weeks ago to touch base but they said they are looking at roles within the company and would be in touch with her.
Now four weeks have gone by and no further contact
I do understand that they may have changed their minds or were perhaps too cowardly to say they she had not been successful but to just leave radio silence seems so mean.
She says she's not going to contact them again and is applying for other things but I feel so furious on her behalf.
Is this usual now?
Where I work we call everyone who is unsuccessful and offer the opportunity for feedback.

"Looking at roles within the company" = restructuring/redundancies?

That's what happened in one of my jobs - before the interview stage though - I put my application in and heard nothing back for like 10 weeks, assumed I'd not been picked. Then they phoned me up and invited me to interview. Once I was working there, my boss shared with me that they had lost, and got back, and then lost again the funding for my position, which is why it had taken so long.

So mean! Especially after she’s invested so much time and effort. But I wonder if they’re waiting for sign off from someone higher up? Or a manager is making things awkward?

I would try to contact them one last time. End things nicely if it’s a no, you never know when something might come up. At least she’s known to a few people in the industry now and she’s got interview experience.

It's really just fucking rude. It sounds like she put a lot into the interview process, only to be ignored thereafter.
She's probably best off not working for a company like that.
YANBU, and best wishes to your daughter

Sadly it's the way things go sometimes, I recently had a similar experience, 2 phone interviews, 2 face to face and a walk about the office being introduced, then silence, I did chase them a few times, and was told they were looking at internal teams and would be in touch.

As it turns out I was offered another role and accepted it, a month later I bumped into the woman that had interviewed me, and she told me they'd restructured and actually half the team I'd met were made redundant, think of it as a potential lucky escape.

And this was for a board level role, not entry level, so tell her not to take it to heart.

Thank you she is taking it better than me I think although I think she feels horribly embarrassed as the messages all seemed to indicate they were going to offer her a post.
I agree it's rude and lazy

I agree with you that it's really rude OP. I had a telephone interview for a big law firm a couple of years ago, followed by a face to face interview with HR, then a week later an interview with the team I'd be working with. For both the face to face interviews I had to use up some of my annual leave to be there. I did a lot of preparation and made a real effort. But after the second interview (which seemed to me to go fine) I didn't hear anything from them at all!

Then about a year later someone from their HR recruitment team contacted me via LinkedIn asking me to apply for a job with them. I told her I was so unimpressed with their treatment of me a year earlier that I'd been put off having any dealings with their firm at all, let along working for them. She was very apologetic but I still wouldn't ever want to work there after they were so rude.

This is the sign of company to avoid and to congratulate oneself on not being selected.
Good luck to her with other jobs. Usually 1 personal interview is all it takes. Fucks sake. Some employers think everyone's reason to exist on earth is that they can do their shitty jobs.