I was contacted via LinkedIn for a role with Ogilvy. I was not actively looking at all, but was open to having a conversation because why not. After my conversation with the recruiter, it sounded interesting enough and I agreed to have another conversation to hear more about the role. Instead of having just one follow up conversation I was immediately scheduled for 5 separate interviews, something that becomes a bit difficult to schedule when working a full time job. Most of the interviews were fine and the people were polite and pleasant to talk to. However, in one of my final interviews I got a strong impression that the interviewer had already written me off before we even spoke. The individual left it mostly to me to ask questions and one of the few questions they asked of me was why I was looking after only being with my current company for a few years, then mentioned how long they were at Ogilvy. This felt offputting mainly because 1) I wasn’t looking and 2) it felt like was the only real question they had, and they didn’t seem all that engaged after that answer. And while I understand that they might not want someone who might leave them after a few years, if my tenure at my current company was an issue, they should have probably never reached out to me in the first place. That information is very public and listed on my resume. They should not have agreed to move me down through 5 rounds of interviews if someone felt that being at a company for anything less than 20 years was unacceptable to them. It felt frustrating to be put through 5 rounds of interviews only to be written off before the start of my last interview. Again, I was a PASSIVE candidate and honestly still needed convincing that Ogilvy is somewhere that I might want to join. There was no “selling” or convincing on their end. The final interviewers should, in many ways, be the closers. Not so in this case. Last but not least, after going through 5 rounds of interviews across several weeks, no one ever followed up with me to ask me how my interviews went. A month later I STILL haven’t gotten any communication as to whether there were any next steps or if the team decided to move forward with other candidates. Nothing! If a candidate takes the time out of their own busy day to speak to your team members 5 separate times, I would think you have the courtesy to follow up with them with a status update. It’s something all candidates deserve, honestly, and definitely ones who went through this many rounds of interviews. In this market you can’t get stingy on candidate experience. In some ways I was lucky that all the interviews were virtual because I can’t imagine being asked to come into the office and interview 5 times only to end up getting ghosted in the end. Suffice to say, I would have no interest in joining Ogilvy and I would have no interest to discuss any future opportunities with them.