I applied on LinkedIn and sent a message directly to the recruiter. We set up a phone screening about two weeks after our initial conversation over LinkedIn messages. The phone screening was just simple questions about my experience and what I was looking for. I then moved onto a second phone interview that once again, seemed to have gone great. A couple weeks after the phone interviews I was invited in for an in-person interview where I met with 3 different employees in about a 2 hour time slot. The interviews seemed to have gone great once again and the team acted very enthusiastic about our conversation. This is about a month into the process when I was then asked to complete a creative assessment that took me around 7+ hours to complete to my liking. Once I sent in my assessment I was asked back for the “final” interview to meet the owners and a few more team members a couple weeks later. Each member complimented me on my assessment and seemed impressed with my work and my “energy”. The conversations seemed to flow very well and I felt very confident that I would receive an offer. Each step of the way I felt complete reassurance and encouragement which in turn created a lot of excitement in me for this position. After my final interview, two months in, 5+ hours dedicated to interviews and 7+ hours of assessment work later, I was then told the hiring process was put on hold and to reach back within the next month. I followed up regarding the position multiple times and was left with no explication since. This process was very confusing and disappointing to say the least. I was thrilled about the position and felt reassurance that I would be the one filling it through the entire process, until I was left with silence in the end. After dedicating so much time, effort, and excitement for this position it was very dissipating that this company wouldn’t even give me a yes or no answer. The interview process was long but great, the people/company seemed great, but what happened after left me feeling very discouraged and simply taken advantage of.