A complete joke. Spoke to the hiring manager on Sep 7, who also told me she had been doing phone screens all day long (this is important later). Talked about the role and my experience and it was super clear that I was not only qualified, but even slightly overqualified with my several years of experience + having managed people in the knowledge industry. She told me I would move onto the next step in meeting with her and her boss. Heard nothing for the rest of the week, then today (Sep 12, a whopping 5 days later) I receive a generic rejection email stating they already hired someone else…haha. Wow, so fast! Surely they didn’t hire someone they knew and only made an offer based on merit, selecting someone from the many phone screens conducted, right? Completely unprofessional and laughable. The hiring manager used the word “synergy” in her first email. Should have been my glaring red flag to run.