The best way I could describe it was unprofessional and unethical. I was referred by a previous employee, but received an interview based on my own merits (submitting cover letter, resume, and portfolio). The recruiter was ecstatic during my initial screening. She made it clear that the hiring manager singled me out and raved about my portfolio. She went as far as to emphasize that I'm one of the top runners, and that they just have a couple of other people they're interviewing for process sake. Then it started to get weird. She gave me her phone number and insisted that I text her if I ever needed anything. She repeated this multiple times throughout our call. I felt a bit uncomfortable with how forward she was this early on in the process, but chose to take it as a good sign. I decided to email instead of text her with my follow up questions. She replied the first time but ignored my next email. I thought that was odd, but didn't think much of it, as I still had the 1:1 with the hiring manager scheduled. After the 1:1, I felt less sure that this was a good fit. The hiring manager wasn't very engaging during our conversation, and it didn't feel like he was fully present during the interview. I decided to give the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes people have bad days. I was still interested in next steps. I sent a thank you email, followed up with him, followed up with her, and crickets. I continued following up through email, and eventually left a voice message after feeling ghosted for a period of time. Then that's when I finally received the most generic rejection email from the most generic rejection email address. Talk about leading someone on! Shame on the recruiter for (excuse my language) being fake as hell. If you're going to love bomb a candidate, at least have the decency to send a timely personal rejection email. I don't care about not getting the job, but I do care about being treated with respect. Herman Miller, you can do better than this. Please train your HR to learn some empathy and kindness. Good news on my side though, ended up with a much better paying role with another company. Bullet dodged.