The first time I applied for this role, I got rejected by the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) out of hand the very next day! I even had a friend of mine who works there bring over my resume to the hiring manager. But no luck, and not even a phone screen. However, after a few weeks I discovered that the job was still open. My friend had told me that the job had been open for months. So the next time, I used LinkedIn to establish a connection with the in-house recruiter. I made a strong case with them as to why I'd be a great candidate for the role. They agreed and set up a phone screen with the hiring manager. The hiring manager and I hit it off swimmingly over the phone. We seemed to be on the same page about a great many things when it came to marketing communications content writing. I had spent probably 6+ hours preparing for the phone screen. It paid off in terms of being asked to do a writing assignment. Which I knew I could ace. Another poster here, who probably interviewed for the same job, had to go through a round of in-person interviews (with five staff members) and then they were handed the writing assignment. That seems a little backwards to me. They spend about 20 hours preparing for the interviews and the writing assignment but was not offered the job. Anyway, I spent over 14 hours working on this writing assignment: a wire-service-ready press release and a convention-ready product datasheet. I over delivered and gave the a comprehensive analysis on an editorial aspect to the writing assignment. I really wanted to impress them! Ironically, they asked me how I came to know about the company and that's when I mentioned my friend. They told me that they thought that my friend had mentioned someone to them he was recommending for the role, but they didn't know it was me. I am a little surprised because my friend totally referred for the role. Well, I worked like crazy over the weekend to deliver the writing assignment for Monday morning. And then after a few days I checked in, and instead of hearing that I would be coming in for an actual face-to-face interview, I was told that they had already made someone else an offer! The in-house recruiter said that the hiring manager was extremely impressed by my writing assignment. I wrote both the recruiter and the hiring manager a long and professional thank you note. I also tried to make it an 'influence letter' to see if I could convince the hiring manger to bring me on in another capacity or if their new hire didn't work out, to consider offering me the role. The hiring manger was impressed by my influence letter. She seemed very sincere, kind, and professional with her response. To her credit she did what most hiring managers never do: give feedback instead of a simple "don't let the door hit you on the way out" ding letter! She said that they had to go with the internal or referred candidate because that person was further along in the interview process! I've heard all kinds of rejection excuses in my day but that was a new one. Why bother having me enter the race when someone else was already at the finish line? I feel that had I wasted a huge amount of time campaigning for this role, having a carrot (i.e. a face-to-face interview) dangled in front of me, all for nothing if they had no intention of actually interviewing me for the position. It seems a little silly to play such hiring games. If they were totally impressed with my writing assignment, why didn't they put the brakes on the other candidate so that I could come in and catch up to them? And really wow them! I think it was a waste of their time as well to give me the writing assignment when they were already close to making someone else an offer. The hiring manger and the in-house recruiting staff need to tune up their hiring practices a bit. There's no reason why this job should have been vacant for months on end; there's no reason to interview a candidate (with five of the staff!) and then give them the writing assignment, and then no offer; and there's no reason to give a great candidate a writing assignment (who thinks they're going to get an in-person interview) only to hire someone else solely because they were further along in the interviewing process. That's not due diligence; that's inefficient hiring practices. And it's a waste of everybody's time. I still think Cognex is a great company with great people working there but judging from what I've read here, I don't think anyone from the outside can get hired at this company unless they have some kind of leverage. I don't know, I could be wrong but this whole process from end-to-end seems like business politics to me and is not in the best interest of the company or the candidates—including the ones they hire.