I was already working as a consultant for a while so I knew all of the players and the interview process was pretty straightforward... although there was massive amounts of miscommunication between HR and hiring manager. The entire process was about 3 months which is a joke in today's growing economy, but I really liked the company's mission and direction and wanted to make it work. After the initial interviews it took about a week or so to get to negotiation and this is where it all went south. To make a long story short, HR used bait and switch tactics to change the title several times and the final time they downgraded it by two levels without telling me. I found out about the the final title change AFTER I accepted the offer and I found this out by accident. The title was on the onboarding forms a week before my start date. After finding out, I inquired about it and the hiring manager told me "there's nothing I can do about it. HR sets the titles". This is ridiculous considering the hiring manager was an "executive". I guess their power is limited OR they knew about this bait and switch tactics that HR uses and was ok with it. Aside from this, throughout the entire negotiation process the hiring manager and HR would contradict each other and even blame each other for all of the mishaps that took place, which I won't even bother to mention. You get the point. Very unethical process, to say the least! I ran away from the offer and never looked back!