Referral by employee, followed by phone contact from hiring manager. Applied through the online system and received a phone call from a recruiter within a few days to schedule a phone interview. It took about one week to schedule the phone interview and then two more weeks to schedule an in-person interview. The recruiter was very responsive to my inquiries during this time and always got back to me in a timely manner. The interview was scheduled about one weekout and included an agenda that contained two interviews, one each with the hiring manager and the director of the department. The in-person interviews went really well and I was excited and positive, that I would receive an offer. Within a few hours, I heard back from the hiring manager that the interviews were great and that the recruiter would contact me soon with an offer. I did not hear from the recruiter, but the hiring manager called within 24 hours and said that they were enthused about me, but one more interview with a cross-functional team member would be needed; and proceeded to scheduled it for me. Then, HR contacted me within 24 more hours and scheduled another phone interview with me. The phone interview with the team member from another department was okay, but somewhat awkward because it focused on skills that I obviously didn't have to the extent that this person would have wanted. I called the hiring manager afterwards, and we discussed this concern. The hiring manager and the department director were aware of it, said it wasn't important, and still wanted to go ahead. Then the HR phone interview, a so-called "screening", took place. It was very thorough and covered all imaginable questions, from my time at school to where I was at the time, and everything in between. Very exhausting and...unexpected. Why, I wondered, this took place at this time in the interviewing process? Within a few hours after the HR interview, I received a phone call from the hiring manager, that yet another interview had to be scheduled, with another cross-functional team member, but from another department. This felt very strange, but since the hiring manager assured me once again, that it would be a mere "formality", I agreed and forwarded my availability for the requested day. The day came and went, with nobody contacting me, or confirming any specific time. I contacted the hiring manager and was told that this person would be busy in meetings and, instead of arranging the interview for me, I was given the email address to arrange it myself - which I did. This was at the beginning of the week, and the phone call wasn't scheduled until the end of the week. I thought that this was strange, since the department director had shared with me how urgent they'd want to hire someone. Anyway, when the day came, the person called me a few minutes after the agreed-upon time. What followed then was the weirdest interview I've had thus far. The issue of my insufficient skills in that one particular area that came up before were tested and tried and found not to be good enough. The person told me quite frankly at that time, that I would not be the right person for the job, and we could end the interview right now because there was no use in wasting any more of each others' time. The call ended. I sent an email to the hiring manager. The response came a few hours later, when the hiring manager left a voice mail: The last interview did not go so well, that person used all means and clout to get the VP of the department to let the hiring manager know that I would not be hired.