It was both an exciting and painful process. It was exciting because I was such a perfect match to the advertised job description and met all the advertised prerequisites. I attended the intensive 4 hour interview and came away with very positive feelings about being hired. A week later I was informed the company decided on an internal hire/promotion. The saddest part about not getting hired is that the person who did receive the position met none of the advertised prerequisites. My takeaway from this experience is that the senior leadership was not engaged in an authentic attempt to fill the position with the most qualified candidate but rather one which would require no added salary outlay nor relocation expenses. The long term result is the people and assets of the company are now more at risk--and don't even know it yet.