Was called for an interview 3 months after applying for the role. 1st interview was by the hiring manager which is the Asso. Director. He was a nice person and validated with me according to the skillset and experience that I shared on my cv. 2 weeks later, I was called for 2nd interview by the Director. He was another nice person. He talked to me briefly about my experience and asked me a lot of behavioral and scenario-based questions. 2 weeks after the 2nd interview, I was notified by HR through phone and email that I am the selected candidate. We proceed to discuss about my current and expected remuneration. HR's comment was that my asking salary was high. I felt it was alright as the requested salary increase felt totally within the industry benchmark and practice. I also expressed to them that salary is definitely negotiable. I was made to wait for a month. Reason cited was that the approval process for headcount and salary proposal got delay. By now, it is already almost 2 months after the 1st interview. I sent an email thanking the hiring manager for his time. On the same day, HR called and notified me that there was an internal applicant and they have decided to move on with him/her/ They also cited my requested remuneration as part of the reasons that made them to be unable to move on with my application. At least, that were the reasons given by them. I was totally taken aback by the turn of events. I expressed flexibility at being willing to negotiate my requested salary. However, there was no attempts by HR to negotiate with me and then suddenly, an "internal applicant" popped up. I am wondering, had I not sent an email to the hiring manager, how long would HR want to continue to make me wait? They apologised for having dragged the process. I totally respect their decision, but I believe that the hiring process was definitely could have been better handled. For example, headcount and budget could have been approved but they commence the interviewing process. Also, HR should have asked for candidate's current and expected salary so that a common consensus could be met if possible, resulting in not wasting anybody's time. I'm just surprised that this can happen at MSD, a pharmaceutical giant. Of course the decision to hire me or not is totally up to them. But I feel that this can definitely be handled in a much better way.