In all of my professional experience, both as a recruiter and candidate, this by far was the worst interview process I have ever endured. Dec. 7th - received LinkedIn message from recruiter after being identified as a potential candidate for the role. Dec. 14th - 1st phone interview w/ recruiter. (Was told that this was a streamlined process and that the team was not looking to drag out the interviews.) December 29th - Phone interview w/ HR Manager. Jan -5th - phone interview w/ Team Lead (Decision Maker). Jan. 12th - Onsite interview w/ 6 individuals total (4 hour long interview, which was supposed to be the final step. Received constructive feedback from the Team Lead, decision maker, to "for future interviews, let your hair down. [I] was too formal in the way that I spoke and that [he] couldn't tell if I was so "articulate" because I was nervous, but it was okay to not be "so polished."). Jan. 19th - after having to reach out to recruiter, I was informed that feedback from everyone on the team was "positive all around, except for the team lead. He felt that the other candidate's personality better matched his own, but you are the more experienced candidate." Jan. 24th - Tie breaker, phone interview with Associate Director (was unofficially told that this would be the final final interview and though the team lead liked the other candidate better due to his personality, a majority vote of the team would go in my favor.) Jan. 25th - phone interview with HR Director (I was never told the purpose of this interview.) Friday, Jan. 26th - had to reach out to recruiter at the end of the day Friday for feedback and was told that their would be next steps on Monday. Monday, Jan. 29th - after not hearing back from the recruiter, I reached out to her by email and was then told that I would hear from her tomorrow with final feedback. Jan. 30th - Never heard back from the recruiter. Jan. 31st - after reaching out to her, she finally informed me that the team lead decided to go with the lesser experienced candidate due to him "feeling that their personalities were more aligned." After expressing my frustrations of the process, being strung around for three weeks after my 'final'onsite interview, and the fact that their was no transparency on anyone's part including the senior recruiter, the only response yielded by the recruiter was "I'm sorry you're upset that you didn't get the position...you completely caught me off guard with your call today." My frustrations do not lie with me not being offered the position, but the lack of transparency and utterly inefficient, elongated interview process. Gartner unfortunately has a long way to go in regards to providing a positive candidate experience for applicants. A major suggestion that I would leave for the organization is provide feedback to candidates in a timely manner, even if its feedback that candidates don't want to hear and shorten the interview process. Include everyone in the interview process early instead of one interview after another with different individuals. The total amount of time that I took away to interview with this organization was eight and a half hours over a 7 week period.