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Original poster

7 interviews and didn’t get the job

36 replies

Interviewreject · 27/01/2024 01:36

I have been interviewing with a company and have met 8 people over 7 interviews. Communication has always been very quick and now nothing. Ghosted after 7 interviews (and a lot of my time). I have followed up but no response. Have seen the team posting the role on LinkedIn since my last meeting so it doesn’t seem as if they have hired someone else.

Is this usual to have some many interviews and not hear back?

OP posts:
Acapulco12 · 27/01/2024 01:39

I’m so sorry OP 🌺 job applications and interviews can be so draining and time consuming, and it’s so stressful to go through a long drawn-out interview process and then not have positive news. I’m really sorry.

Have you got any other applications/interviews lined up - or do you think you would like to ask this company you just interviewed with for feedback?

If you’re in a position to, it might be worth taking a couple of days off job applications to relax and have some free time. Wishing you all the best.

Blankspace4 · 27/01/2024 01:41

Similar happened to me when I’ve been headhunted, invested a lot of time in several stages of interviews, met senior people, had encouraging noises all the way through and then…dropped from a great height (in my case they appointed internally and I felt I was just there as a benchmark and also as a female - they appointed a man)

very poor form they have not been in touch with you at all - how long has it been? Are you sure the role you’ve seen advertised is the exact one you were in the running for?

StandardLFinegan · 27/01/2024 01:42

How rotten for you op. That totally sucks.

I have no idea if it is usual or not but it is certainly appallingly rude and unprofessional.

Name and shame!

123stay · 27/01/2024 01:43

Seven interviews! That is taking the piss.

Original poster
Interviewreject · 27/01/2024 01:44

Thank you both. Yes it’s definitely the same role.

It’s strange as if I don’t have the right experience or didn’t like me - they would have surely known by interview 3 or 4.

I have a feeling (they’ve been recruiting a while) that they had no one else and I was an OK option to present to senior stakeholders to show they were making some progress.

OP posts:
Nevermind31 · 27/01/2024 01:46

I went through something similar 20 odd years ago… great interviews, then a recruitment freeze. They called me up again once their freeze was over… have been with them since (in many different roles and moving up the ranks and salary bands). Wouldn’t give up just yet…

EmmaEmerald · 27/01/2024 01:50

So sorry OP, if they wanted to hire you, they'd definitely have let you know.

Potentially unpopular opinion but 7 interviews is a pisstake unless it was like £500,000 pa or something.

I pulled out of a process after three interviews - not even £50k! The third interview was two hours. They called to offer a fourth and I said no, which seemed to shock them. The first two were conducted by a man who seemed extremely reluctant to engage with me, except when finding fault with my answers.

.Something was wrong there and I suspect the same here. I really can't think of excuses to take up so much of a candidate's time. Probably horrible to work for them.

coxesorangepippin · 27/01/2024 01:53

7 interviews is ridiculous, as a pp said

Unless it's CEO for one of the big 4 or something

KinKenKon · 27/01/2024 04:18

7 interviews is ridiculous and alarm bells would ring for me! Would suggest they're stringing this out deliberately for some reason.

DH once had 3 interviews, including one with company owner and when they asked him back for a 4th he declined saying he couldn't spare any more time. They offered him the job straight away.

Sorry OP if they'd wanted you and were in a position to go ahead and recruit they'd have offered by now

Passingthethyme · 27/01/2024 04:55

Wow, how rude. I'd follow up. Think of it as dodging the bullet if they are this inefficient and disorganised

Passingthethyme · 27/01/2024 05:15

EmmaEmerald · 27/01/2024 01:50

So sorry OP, if they wanted to hire you, they'd definitely have let you know.

Potentially unpopular opinion but 7 interviews is a pisstake unless it was like £500,000 pa or something.

I pulled out of a process after three interviews - not even £50k! The third interview was two hours. They called to offer a fourth and I said no, which seemed to shock them. The first two were conducted by a man who seemed extremely reluctant to engage with me, except when finding fault with my answers.

.Something was wrong there and I suspect the same here. I really can't think of excuses to take up so much of a candidate's time. Probably horrible to work for them.

I agree 3 should be enough, it would concern me if they can't male a decision after that. A waste of everyone's time

LlynTegid · 27/01/2024 06:59

Seven interviews seems like a company that is either indecisive or has people scared of consequences if they employ a person who turns out to not fit the bill. There are some things no interviews can flush out (the person who misses deadlines, someone who has annoying habits in a shared workplace, for example), but I think OP you should be in a way glad not to be working for such a company.

JustWhatWeDontNeed · 27/01/2024 07:04

No one needs 7 interviews. Not even a CEO, it's absurd.

Recruitment these days seems to be an exercise in who can waste the most time and money.

GreatGateauxsby · 27/01/2024 07:18

I would have been reticent to go for a 4th tbh but you get sucked in via sunk cost fallacy don't you?

It's bad form but I also think indicates two possibilities both bad

  1. Totally disorganised company )financing for role is dicey
  2. They aren't sure what they want exactly.

No 2 I have seen 10 or so times in various companies and always feel awful for the poor stooge who ultimately takes the role as it is always a mess. The role isn't clearly defined they are often expected to deliver against objectives without having necessary mandates to do so OR are given nebulous/moving objectives. THEN therly are gaslit into believing THEY are the problem as they aren't performing?!?!

Cold comfort but you've most likely dodged a bullet.

ThinWomansBrain · 27/01/2024 08:21

Not quite seven interviews, but three, a presentation, an hour long 'test' - and then couldn't be arsed to get back to me. Rude.
In my new role, the couldn't be arsed charity applied for a grant of several hundred thousand. I don't think they met the criteria, toyed for a while between the joy of informing them or 'forgetting'.

TBF, I was more irritated by the charity that got back to me with effusive feedback, it had been a really difficult decision between me and the other candidate...
Only to have a recruiter contact me the next day about the same role.

Blu23 · 27/01/2024 08:26

7 interviews is a joke, I have worked for a big 4 in a different country long back and there were 4 rounds, 30 candidates in the first round, down to 4 candidates in the 4th round and I got selected. If they have taken you till 7th round and still not taken you then it's better for you not to be working for this organisation.

43ontherocksporfavor · 27/01/2024 08:32

Cut your losses OP, they sound hideous if they can’t get their act together after a couple of interviews .If they had a tiny doubt surely that’s what probationary periods are for

EasternStandard · 27/01/2024 08:33

7 interviews is ridiculous

What a waste of time

katmarie · 27/01/2024 09:38

I went through a recruiter conversation, psychometric testing and 4 interview rounds with a large global company, and in the third, they made the 4th sound very much like a formality, just to box off the process. Then they ghosted me.

And then 6 months later invited me to apply to a different position. I declined and politely explained that the experience I'd had the previous time had put me off working for them permanently. Might have burned a bridge there but hey ho. They wasted hours of my time prepping for interviews and then ghosting me, it was incredibly rude and unprofessional.

Krustykrabpizza · 27/01/2024 09:50

That is ridiculous, 7 interviews is absolutely insane. Complain via email, if they don't respond write reviews on Glassdoor, Google etc. That's what I would do.

CranfordScones · 27/01/2024 10:09

That's an organisation that has a serious problem with its hiring process, no regard for the value of other people's time and an inability to make decisions.

Hugely annoying, yes. But you should be looking for somewhere better to work.

CMOTDibbler · 27/01/2024 10:27

I did 7 interviews for an internal promotion, because they couldn't organise for everyone at once- I think it would have been 3 levels of interview. And then I was ghosted! The manager just couldn't be arsed to tell me tbh

Soopermum1 · 27/01/2024 10:42

I had similar, loads of interviews then ghosted. My friend now works in that team in that company ( different job) and hates it. I think I dodged a bullet as a month or two later I was interviewed in a more standard way and was offered a job by a similar company for more money. Love the job. It sucked at the time though.

Work2live · 27/01/2024 10:45

If you’re on LinkedIn, I’d name and shame them if you feel comfortable doing so.

Too many companies are getting away with these shitty recruitment practices now. I take huge notice whenever I see a company called out for stuff like this. They’ve treated you terribly and need to learn that it’s unacceptable.

HateMyRubbishBoss · 27/01/2024 10:51

@Interviewreject do you really want to work for an org that has to interrogate you 7 times to make up their mind?

imagine if you went through and had to apply for a promotion in few years, you d go through hell again

someone saved you there , happened for a reason

keep on looking now that you’re “fresh” from interviews

good luck x

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