I met with 2 managers including the hiring manager for a formal interview with generic questions and then the hiring manager for a coffee at their offices. During the coffee with the hiring manager she was overwhelmed, her eyes were watering and she shared fairly negative views on the company and her team. I was verbally offered the role, a salary was agreed and reimbursement of the recruiter was discussed. I was then asked for references and then told they had contacted a reference and received a negative reference. I asked for a copy of the report in writing as my reference had advised the opposite and was then told it was actually positive and that a record wasn’t kept. They then mentioned my lack of stakeholder engagement skills were the issue and that I would not be given the role. The role was a 15k pay cut from my previous role and significantly more junior so this made little sense. I escalated the matter and was told that I was never offered the role, that contacting references is normal. I agreed but advised that it wasn’t normal to get positives references and then simply change their minds, they then asked who had advised that the reference has been positive.. ? I raised concerns of discrimination given they couldn’t explain their decisions which were not based on anything myself or my reference had said and they advised that they couldn’t discriminate as they hadn’t offered me the role… I asked what I could do differently next time I applied and was told to apply for a role within my experience level. I asked what experience the successful candidate had and they were unable to advise. This seems like a really great company for anyone who wants an easy ride, no accountability or fairness. They don’t appear to be looking for proactive candidates that will likely show up underperforming managers of which there seems to be an abundance. It is concerning that they have WGEA accreditation as they do not appear to support females careers. As a candidate, at the very least I expect a neutral experience.