The interview process was divided into three phases. First interview was general introduction. Second one was a bit technical. In the third one they were interesting in getting to know the previous work experiences and work related behavior in detail.
I cleared the first two rounds and third interview also went great. I got a call from the team that they liked me as a candidate and I have also cleared third interview after which they asked me if I can shorten my notice period to 1-15 days as they want me to join early. After this conversation, I was hoping to get an offer letter soon but the company decided to ghost me. I tried to reach them several times hoping to know what went wrong. They only replied few times saying " we're still trying to fit you in" .
Here are my thoughts:
a.) I think it was extremely unprofessional of the company to provide false hopes of giving an offer when they were not so sure of how to proceed. Every now and then they asked me to negotiate my notice period to 10-15 days which showed that they were serious.
b.) There is no HR team ( or atleast no HR contacted me).
c.) They called once saying that they're considering me for a completely different role than what I had interveiwed for. The person who was taking this interview didn't want to hire me from the start and it all felt like a big formality.
d.)Even after reaching them several times and asking them politely to inform me of the final decision ( I even asked them to inform me if I am rejected so that I can move on to other opportunities) - they still did not feel the need to send me a polite rejection mail or even a text. They kept saying " we're trying to fit you in" .
e.) I think startups are great and have a lot of potential but experiences like these prevent people from applying into a startup ( firstly, they're largely unstructured and second, they do not value a candidate's time and skills).
f.) All conversation happened through texts/calls - they never used to send mails ( even when I asked them).