Was contacted several times by hiring manager and internal talent recruiter over a period of several months, and a colleague about the role. Had the initial call with the talent recruiter, then a zoom interview, then panel interview, all went very well, was told during the panel interview they would try and get the final stage with the solution director within the week, and was contacted by the internal talent recruiter several times within hours of the panel interview to discuss my feedback, and package. Next day talent recruiter called to give me a provisional date/time for the final stage, a face to face with the solution director to pencil into my calendar. Several days went by, I got some feedback from various people I knew there that it was all very positive, and they were eager to hire me. Then I got told that the hiring manager was going to be speak to someone I knew at ServiceNow, this wasn't an official reference, this wasn't run by me, I just heard from colleagues at ServiceNow. I was disappointed that I wasn't told this was happening officially. Having being told to pencil in a date and time, a few days before the final interview, I got a call from the talent recruiter that unfortunately they were now not going to take this any further? I was totally baffled, having pencilled in the final stage interview and discussed package, out of nowhere I was given no explanation as to this sudden change. I was given no proper explanation, the talent recruiter skirted around the reason, said something on the lines of 'someone else has come into the picture', 'the hiring manager had other interviews later in the week'. But it was the end of the week that I got a call to tell me to pencil in the date/time for the final interview. I then asked if it was because of the conversation the hiring manager was allegedly going to have off book with someone I knew there. There was absolute denial, that even if this conversation did happen it had no influence, and this was simply because someone else had "come into the picture" between end of day Friday and 10am Monday when I got the call. If whoever the hiring manager had spoken to had said anything negative about me, I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to address whatever they have said, especially since I believe that particular person would deliberately make defamatory comments which contained no truth whatsoever. To be told there is a final interview, and then told 'someone else is now in the frame' is really poor and unprofessional, I could expand further on the comments made in the panel interview, and there was one particular comment which would constitute sexual victimisation, as one of the interviewers would never have said that to a male counterpart being interviewed. This experience is negative for me, because it wasn't fair, I was initially told one thing, I had got through to the final interview, and insisted on having a package conversation, showing they were seriously interested. Then out of nowhere being told the final interview isn't happening because someone else is in the picture. Clearly the hiring manager had listened to whoever was spoken to without my consent, and instead of giving me some real feedback, fobbed me off with 'someone else is in the picture'. If this is the case, why hasn't that position been filled yet, as they are still posting it on LinkedIn every week, and its been weeks, and I understand from internal sources, its not filled yet. Candidates should be treated fairly and not mislead. Also, I think hiring managers need to go on some HR training to understand the realms of sexual discrimination.