The candidate was moving for the job. Not applying, not interviewing, not starting — moving. The offer had been made, and the candidate had done the thing every recruiter asks for: committed, packed a life into a vehicle, and pointed it at a new city.
Halfway there, HR called.
Not to confirm a start date. To deliver a hiring freeze. The offer was being pulled. Nothing about the candidate had changed; the budget had simply been reorganized, and the candidate now sat on the wrong side of the reorganization, somewhere between two cities with a job on neither end.
There is a particular cruelty to a rescinded offer that waits until you are physically committed. A rejection before you leave costs you a fantasy. A rescinded offer halfway to the destination costs you the destination. The candidate was left on a road between an old life and a new one, holding the one thing the process had not rescinded: the drive.