The interviewing process itself was fine. Not "speedy", but each step was well-communicated. The invitation process was smooth. The recruiter reached out for the initial screening. She was very nice, helpful, and communicative. I interviewed with the hiring manager, three additional team members, and then made it to the final round with the department head. I had great conversations with each of them. I emailed personalized thank yous to each of them. I was asked to email a response to the department head in answer to the question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?". I was honest, not sure if that was disqualifying because I said I wanted to grow and ultimately get back to a leadership role. I emailed her promptly and, of course, thanked her, as well. I was very excited about the meaningful nature of the work, the company, and the possibility of working with the team. I had invested an EXTENSIVE amount of time prepping for the role. Learning about BS, the specific product lines, the industry, financials, leadership, the comp set, Everything. I felt like I had immersed myself in the brand and its business goals. Upon making it to the final stage, I was not asked to go to the office, which I should have taken as an indicator. Still, that conversation was good, albeit quite rushed because she had only 30 minutes and had a hard stop. Then radio silence. For several weeks. I kept checking my candidate profile; it kept showing that my candidacy was "in review". It was almost a month. In hindsight, not as long as it could have been, but it was agonizing because I was so excited about the role. Finally, I received a generic rejection email. I checked my candidate profile, and my candidacy status was updated to "Rejected". That felt unnecessarily harsh after the time I had invested.
