From the first initial contact to the very generic email notifying me they're not moving forward with me, it's been nearly two whole months. I understand that people are busy--but when you're hiring for a position, the people involved need to make time. I'm a hiring manager myself and ALWAYS make my candidates a top priority because I understand that their time is just as important as mine. I got to the "final step" and was passed on--which I understand, again, as a hiring manager; not everyone is a perfect fit. But when someone does 3 interviews over 8 weeks and has invested so much time and effort, at least have the decency to send them an email personally and let them know why they've been passed over. I asked twice for a status update after my last interview and nearly two weeks later, I got the email you SHOULD get when you first apply and get rejected--the generic HR "thank you for your interest but we've moved forward with other candidates." Feels like a slap in the face especially since I met with the HR person and the director of publishing and couldn't even get a real person to say sorry for wasting my time? Extremely unprofessional and disrespectful from a hiring manager's perspective.

First interview about background and experience; second one about skills and competencies. The interviews have been relaxed and the interviewers nice. Prepare to answer to questions based on the STAR technique