I went through 4 interviews. The 3rd interview was with the hiring manager. A lot of strong marketing based questions. Great interaction.
The final interview was with the CEO.
The CEO was late to the interview. He also had a hard stop. I believe he was viewing someone else’s resume while interviewing me because he asked a couple of questions about previous roles that were not related to my resume and asked me about my experience at a university that I did not go to. His questions somewhat seemed like hazing. Most of the questions were not related to the marketing role and description that I was interviewing for.
That is when I realized he and the hiring manager were looking for two very different things.
After the interview, he stated he thinks I’m the candidate for this role and will have the hiring manager or HR reach out to me regarding next steps. After not hearing back for a week, I reached out only to find out they had filled the role. I was then told that the offer is never a guarantee until a candidate starts. I wasn’t upset since I was strongly considering not moving forward due to the reviews online of the CEO, the company, and my own impression of CEO. However, taking someone through 4 interviews in 1 week and not having the decency to inform them that you have moved forward with a different candidate is disappointing.