After submitting a resume and cover letter, I was contacted by HR to schedule an initial phone interview. The phone interview was with the prospective supervisor, was in-depth and lasted about one hour. A couple of days after the phone interview, I was contacted for an in office interview. This interview was conducted by two staff members whom I would be working with. It was an in depth and pleasant interview. This interview lasted no more than one hour. A follow up phone interview with London office staff was then scheduled about one week later. This interview was more challenging, but informative. A few days later I was contacted by HR to be notified that they were interested in hiring me, but as it was the end of the year they needed to finalize budget details before making a formal offer. At that time HR indicated that employment would commence in January of 2014 and asked if I would be ok with the wait and I stated that I would be ok with it. HR also stated during this conversation that would provide plenty of time to gather required pay stub information, as well as allow for time to go through the background check and ID process. In the meantime, I provided the requested salary information and discontinued my job search. When January came, I contacted HR to find out when they expected to formalize their offer and was told the situation was still 'status quo'. I continued to be in touch twice a week for the duration of the month and was given the same status each time. At no time did they mention the position was no longer available, or that they were no longer interested in hiring me. In fact, I was told that I was a great candidate and they would love to hire me but understood if I couldn't wait for their formal offer as they couldn't provide a time frame when it would be forthcoming. I discontinued contacting them when February came and they no also made no attempt to contact me further. To this day, I have no idea what happened. Word of advice to candidates: if made an offer over the phone, insist on getting that re-iterated in writing via email. Also, do not discontinue your job search until you are in the door, even after being made an verbal offer, as it may not come through.