I recalling have a series of interviews testing various aspects of my experience - UX, Data, Strategy, Product Management, etc. Each interview was 30-1 hr and I was given data sets and hypothetical case studies to solve. They were right balance of relevant, challenging, interesting, and tied to the role. Each interview had a panel of people with the core skill set and then a few others. Through the process, I learned more about the role and recognized my fit as well. I could also see how they worked as a company in real-time, which I found helpful at this later stage in my career as a director. I ended up being #2 of maybe 7 candidates. I was also lucky to have a connection on Linkedin to the CEO and a few other staff, so I was able to have a short call to get-to-know one C-level staff, which was helpful. The Recruiters were also very responsive and prompt to schedule as I had a few other opportunities at the time. However, in the end, they took a while to make a final decisions and only responded as I had another job offer, so they let me know I was #2 and the first candidate was most likely going to accept. I really appreciated their honesty as it helped inform my decision. In the end they went with someone who had done the specific work from their industry, where I had come from an emerging market context. I had invested a lot of time and preparation in researching their core products and capabilities and limitations for the interviews and they were not easy per se, but overall was a great experience. And although the news of being #2 was disappointing as I loved their company, I wished them the best success and promptly accepted my other offer. Reflecting back on this 2 years later, I would have appreciated them making a decision a lot sooner versus having me go through so many exercise to decide, which was a lot of my time, stress, and energy as I managed a C-level full-time job somewhere else (was hoping to move continents). I also found out later that they had not gone ahead with the #1 candidate for whatever reason, and they promoted someone internally. After hearing about that - although happy for the person since they had interviewed me and I thought they were really intelligent and strategic from the call - I wish that they were more thoughtful about their needs and even potential to hire an external talent. Either way, I did learn from the experience though.