Applied online and received an automated email saying that they've decided to move on with other candidates. About a week later a recruiter reached out to me to schedule a phone screen for the same role, soon after they scheduled an interview with the hiring manager. During the interviews, there were a couple of things I thought were red flags. The recruiter screen was only about 10-15 minutes long, very brief and didn't really try to get to know me. At the hiring manager interview, there were some signs of micromanagement, the hiring manager kept saying this role isn't very well defined yet and so it could encompass many areas of work. They also kept getting interrupted by their phone ringing, which forced them to step out of the interview twice. The hiring manger kept looking down while speaking, not engaging at all. The whole interview felt unprepared and unprofessional.

I applied online and was contacted a couple weeks later. Phone screen with the recruiter, then moved to the hiring manager. After hiring manager, I had 2 separate hour long panels of members of my team. Then I had an extra hour interview with someone who was sick and couldn’t attend the first panel. My talk with the recruiter was great, hit it off and they marked me as a “Strong Yes” to the next round. The hiring manager I met with next had similar enthusiasm, saying I was great and will push me though to the next round. I mentioned I was actively interviewing at another studio, and they fast tracked me. I had my first two panels in one sitting back to back, with 2 groups of 3-4 people answering questions. That was supposed to be the final interview. One person could not attend so the recruiter asked if I would be okay doing one more interview with the person that missed. I had that a week after my “final” interview. After I spoke with him, I was told they were moving forward internally for the role. It was very confusing to hear that after how quickly they moved me through, only to give it to someone else internally. The whole process was great and the recruiter did an incredible job, but how it all ended left a bad taste in my mouth because it didn’t feel like they were honest in their rejection.