The candidate spent six weeks inside a hiring process at a mid-sized tech firm. They cleared the recruiter screen, sat the hiring manager interview, presented a ninety-minute case study to four team leads, and did a peer chat. Every person they met told them they were the frontrunner.
The recruiter called on a Friday with the final step: a fifteen-minute conversation with the VP of Operations. It was a cultural formality, the recruiter said, and an offer would follow straight after.
The VP joined six minutes late, from the front seat of his car, wearing sunglasses. He did not apologise. He looked down at his phone while the candidate spoke and answered in generic acknowledgements. He asked two questions about a college GPA from eight years earlier, cut the call at the twelve-minute mark, and hung up.
Twenty-four hours later the recruiter sent a copy-pasted rejection citing a lack of strategic alignment. Five rounds, six weeks of process, and the deciding vote cast from a parking lot.