# One hour to go. One CEO to overrule.

**[TRUE STORY]** — by Mid-career professional · insurance sector · via r/recruitinghell

The company came to him. He didn't apply. Over six weeks, he cleared every gate they put in front of him: multiple interview rounds, a test assignment, a background check, reference calls. The team approved him. HR approved him. The offer letter arrived, then arrived a second time when they reconfirmed the start date. He stopped looking. Why wouldn't he? The deal was done.

One hour before he was supposed to walk through the door, his phone rang. The HR contact was laughing nervously. The CEO, she explained — a person who had been absent from every interview, every decision, every email thread — had finally glanced at his CV. The verdict: insufficient years of experience. The offer was gone.

A recruiter who saw the post later commented: "I can't tell you how many times a C-level executive decided to involve themselves at the last second and completely derailed the process." The candidate wrote that he'd lost a month and a half of his life to a process whose outcome was decided by someone who never once showed up.

*Source: [r/recruitinghell · u/schemaisdead · 12k upvotes](https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/in-shock-after-1-5-months-of-interviews-and-2-offers-company-withdraws-job-hours-before-start-date-13939451.html)*
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