He was already a manager inside the company and applied for an internal role in another department — one whose responsibilities matched his current work closely. The posting was a month old. He was interviewed quickly.
The first interview was with a peer, not a manager. That seemed strange, but he assumed it was the process. Because the role was internal, he also told his own manager he was applying, which raised eyebrows even though his manager was supportive.
On the day, nobody called. He waited, then reached out to the peer himself. The interview began an hour late. Once it started, it went well — he had sat on the other side of the table many times and knew how to present his experience. The peer said it had gone well and that he would hear about a follow-up.
A few days later the rejection came from the hiring manager. The reason: his experience was better aligned with a different part of the business — a part that reflected his career ten years ago, not the leadership work he had done since.
He had never had a formal interview with the hiring manager. His experience had been assessed by a prospective peer who was not in a leadership role and had arrived an hour late without explanation. And because he had told his manager, the company now knew he was looking — a risk he had taken for a process that never really began.
He wrote that he did not know what to do next. He had raised concern with his own leadership and, at the same time, been given no fair chance at the role.