I applied 2023-07-28, and got first interview invitation very fast on 2023-07-31 by the hiring manager, so the first interview with the manager was online on 2023-08-01, talking about my Matlab experience and discuss about general work abilities, it was fine and felt good to talk to the manager because I can feel the manager is a good person with lots of experience in this field. Then in the afternoon I got 2nd interview invitation, which would be a technical interview. So I had it on 2023-08-03 with another person online talking about my technical experience and showed some of my research codes. Then next day I got HR interview invitation, so I did the interview on 2023-08-11. So far everything went well. All people are nice and the process was smooth and fast. This HR told me to expect a next step the week after, so I was suspended and stressed the whole week to wait for their answer, but it does not come on time, so after two weeks since my HR interview, I emailed the hiring manager and HR and got answered that the process was delayed due to some reason and I was still under consideration and in the running. So I wait another week and got contacted by another HR to have another round of HR interview. I was confused why 2 HR interviews were needed? This HR said "oh it is just a quick catch-up with the process". So I talked with him on 2023-09-01 and he introduced directly what is next step, for example I need to go to local office in Stockholm, Sweden, to meet local team and do a presentation etc, for a whole day. It feels that I am ensured that I will be in the final round. He told me at the end of the interview that I can expect a reply from him very fast now since the vacation period is over, so I do not need to wait any longer. He clearly told me now it has 3 candidates including me waiting for the final round and he would get back to me at latest 2023-09-04 with a final round name list, which also confused me a bit. Then one week past, no information at all! I do not remember how many times I emailed this HR and hiring manager during this month asking about the process. These two people gave me totally different reasons about the delay. One is saying the candidates were delayed for some reasons, and the other is saying the local team is delaying for some reasons. I am very tired of asking them and wait for details! I wait weeks after weeks and on 2023-09-26 I cannot bear with it any more, so I emailed this HR again asking about the process, and no reply, but got direct rejection on 2023-09-27.
To be honest I feel very angry now. Not only because of the rejection, but mostly about the recruitment process! This entire recruitment team is located in Cambridge, which hires people for a local team in Stockholm, no idea if this is strange or not. But the entire process is just making people stressed and is just wasting time! It takes 2 months and the information is completely not synced well to us candidates! I feel like a cheap product on market, waiting for those people to pickup anytime they want. The team is not showing respect at all to candidates even if they pretend to be. I was so interested in this job, so I spent lots of time reading posts here, and got to know that when meeting the local team I need to present myself and my experience, and the HR made me feel that I will be in the final round, so I had prepared my PPT long time ago. I spent lots of time on preparing the interview, but it was just a waste of time without any payback from them. I thought it was my dream job but the process was just a ***. I do not want to mention the names of all these people because it was a terrible memory for me, stressed for 2 month and 4 rounds of interview without further process. I know it is very normal without being chosen in the final round, but this team's disrespectful behavior of extreme long delays (promised reply in a few days but delayed for a month without any proactive explanation, every time I have to ask them by myself and wait for centuries before they are willing to reply to me ), in-transparent information exchange, and telling lies to candidates about the process, make it the worst interview experience ever to me!
Conclusion: Keep away from the company if you care about your mental health because now I have to take medicine for my stress situation! (no wonder economic situation of European countries are bad nowadays, these HR people cannot even do their job with responsibilities and efficiencies, but they require candidates with good behaviors, such a joke.)