I've been applying for jobs and have had very little luck (trying to change career direction and get out of audit into a sustainability focussed role since finishing a masters degree last year). Have sent many applications and I just get ghosted or rejected. I had some traction with one role with a large well-known company that I was quite interested in, and managed to get to the end of the whole process, but it seems I'm back at square one.
It was a four stage interview process that began a few months ago. Recruiter screening, followed by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stage interviews. The 1st and 2nd stage interviews went well, I had spent hours preparing for them and to really clue up on the industry and try to explain my transferable and technical skills. I somehow made it to the final interview with the most senior decision makers, but the final interview really threw me.
From the get go, the interviewers seemed extremely uninterested and transactional. They just did a brief introduction then asked me to a give a presentation I was asked to prepare beforehand on how I'd navigate a specific business challenge they were facing that was set out in some instructions. It was a complex business challenge touching multiple areas of their business that required a ton of work and preparation, I must have spent several weeks researching and preparing for it. I delivered the presentation well, although I was a bit nervous about having to do it in-person for a panel, but I didn't come across as nervous. I didn't make any mistakes, felt I came across as confident, and I'd practised it with someone beforehand.
After it was done, the lead interviewer asked a few kind of robotic questions, but she really didn't show any kind of interest in the presentation and recommendations beyond some very surface level questions. There was no feedback given, she was very poker faced and I could not read whether she was interested in what I had said. The other interviewer looked deeply bored, he asked a few questions that felt like they were going through the motions. They then started to try to close down the interview after about 10 minutes of their questions, so I asked if I could ask my own questions which they answered, but in a very scripted robotic way. They didn't say anything that actually 'sold' the role, sounded quite dispassionate. I started to panic when I realised what was happening - never been in an interview that ended so early and certainly not a final one where the stakes are this high. I felt they were really trying to get out of the meeting - yikes. At the end, they said they still had other candidates to interview and would get back in a week.
It's been 10 days since then and I haven't heard anything back, and crushingly, saw the company reposted the same role on their website. I am mainly confused and have been feeling slightly humiliated to be honest. I don't understand how I could get through the initial stages so well, and then the final interview go so disastrously. It didn't feel like it was my fault either - their demeanour and the weird vibes I got from the outset felt very off from the get go like I said. There was little chance to build any rapport with them. I've wondered whether they already had a candidate lined up, but that doesn't seem to make sense if they have reposted the role. Then I wonder if I got taken through the process for diversity box-ticking reasons (had indicated I'm a woman and black in the application process), so it's all just been messing with my head and my confidence is shattered.
I've come to the conclusion that I certainly won't be getting this role given the timing and vibes, but I don't understand what this very odd process was all about. It seems like a huge waste of time for all involved, and I don't get why a final interview could start on the wrong foot. I don't recall saying anything stupid, some of my answers to their questions maybe weren't great as I was thrown by the weird vibe of it all, but I thought I did a solid job preparing.
Anyone else had a similar experience? :/