Shady. Over the course of 2 1/2 months, I interviewed with everyone from the editorial assistant to the publisher. I constantly had to chase down HR to move along to the next step, so much so that the HR representative apologized over e-mail. Traveled from out of the town to Boston on a moment's notice, completed an editorial exercise, received positive feedback. The job ended up going to an internal candidate. This would typically be fine, if it hadn't been communicated to me early in the process that internal candidates had been interviewed months before. Which leaves me to wonder why HBP would drag someone through weeks of unnecessary drama only to promote a coworker. Either way, the entire process was unclear, unprofessional, and left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I've been rejected from several jobs, naturally. I've been working for a long time. None of them were as confusing or infuriating as this one.

I submitted an application and was contacted by a recruiter a week later. (I should disclaim that a friend used to work here, so I think that's why I heard back so quickly.) The recruiter scheduled a call for the following week. The call lasted about 30 minutes. The recruiter was pleasant to speak with and asked general questions (why do you want to work here, how does your experience relate, etc.), and said she would follow up with me about speaking to members of the team this position worked with. I sent a thank-you message the next day, and then... nothing. Two weeks later I sent another follow-up, and then a week after that, I got a brief e-mail saying that they had decided not to move forward with my candidacy. No explanation why. By that point, I was frustrated and less than impressed with the process (even though the recruiter had been pleasant on the phone), so it did not feel worthwhile to try to follow up again.