This company is so disorganized. They are doing cool science and I was excited to potentially work there on a great team that they were establishing. There was an initial interview with the hiring manager then a series of 1 on 1s with other team members. Everyone was very pleasant and welcoming. 2 days after the interview I got a call from their recruiter saying the team loved me and it was a unanimous decision and they would be extending an offer within a few days, following a reference check. I sent over my references immediately. A week passed and the hiring manager reached out to me for my references again saying that HR had not passed them onto her. I emailed at the end of the 2nd week and the recruiter said they were working through my references still. I asked my references and they had not reached out yet. Week 3 they spoke to my references and said I would hopefully be getting an offer early week 4. Mid week I sent them an email checking in and they asked to call me. They said that higher ups had put the position on hold to "prioritize other positions in the company." They strung me along for 4 weeks which little to no communication and went through the effort of talking to my references and then didn't extend an offer even after giving me a verbal offer 4 weeks prior. Had they gone through the process when they said they would, they would not have had issues with a hiring freeze as they did. I also checked on linkedin and they hired a different person at the same level who started when they told me I would be able to start so overall a bit suspicious. It seems like they cannot communicate or work in an efficient manner, at least on the HR side of things. Don't believe them about an offer or benefits unless you have an actual written offer in hand and don't slow down your interview process waiting for them. Now I am a month behind in my search because I trusted them and Bowdoin, their external recruiters.