I was approached by an internal recruiter to see if I had interest in this function. After a phone interview with the hiring manager I was invited to a face to face interview at the offices in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. The interview went really well and I was actually told that I was the best candidate so far. Unfortunately it all went down hill after that. I had to email the recruiter and hiring manager several times as they didn't get back to me themselves and was told I would be invited to a following round of interviews. After 3 months I was finally called and told that I was no longer a suitable candidate and that the preference had gone to internal applicants. OK, fair enough to have a preference for internal candidates but why didn't they think of that before approaching me! All in all a really strange experience.