I applied for the Senior Process Engineer role through their website and was quickly contacted by a recruiter multiple times, which made me hopeful. I went through four rounds of interviews — including two with the hiring manager, who was very positive and gave me the impression that I was a strong fit. I answered every technical question with a concrete example from my past experience, which the hiring manager seemed to genuinely appreciate. The next two rounds were with different panels of three people each. By the final round, the questions felt off — as if they had already selected someone else. For example, one person asked, "Why did you get a PhD?" despite me having over 10 years of relevant industry experience. Another asked, "What is your current company's name like this?" — questions that didn’t seem relevant to the role. This made me feel like I was being used to check boxes, not genuinely considered. Unfortunately, I've realized some large companies may already have someone in mind and just go through the motions to fulfill internal hiring processes. It's disappointing for serious candidates who invest time and effort preparing and interviewing in good faith. It became clear to me that I was likely being used to just fill out a report for the higher-ups — something like, “we interviewed this strong candidate with this strong resume” — to justify the person they had already decided to hire. It’s frustrating to invest significant time and effort, only to realize you were just part of a formality. Above all, they didn’t even have the decency to send a rejection email or respond to my follow-up messages. I only realized I was rejected when I logged into their talent portal and saw my application status had changed.