The interview process was very smooth. A recruiter reached out to me to share the opportunity in early August. The first interview was a call with the recruiter on 8/20, followed by an interview with the hiring manager on 8/25, and a 2-hour interview with 4 different folks across teams (30 minutes each) on 8/28. After the 4-person interview, I was told there was one other candidate who needed to complete their panel interview. On 9/4, I received a note from the recruiter stating that the "feedback was tremendous from the recap meeting" and that the final step was an interview with a VP, ending with, "we will look to conclude your interviews post haste." On 9/9, I had an interview with a VP (my 7th interview) in the process. On 9/10, I was asked to complete a writing assessment, which I submitted the same day. On 9/11, the recruiter said the hiring manager and VP were "impressed" with my writing sample. To formally extend an offer, they needed to collect references from 3 recent managers and I needed to complete a self-assessment. All three managers completed the review immediately, and I did the assessment within the hour. On that day, the hiring manager also reached out and said she was eager to move forward, and the recruiter told me he was working on getting a comp package approved and would be in touch after the weekend. On 9/14, the recruiter scheduled a meeting to discuss the offer, but canceled just minutes before it was to begin. He instead sent an informal offer summary, ending with "Upon your agreement, I'll gather internal approvals, draft an offer letter, and email it to you via DocuSign. If you have any questions/concerns please feel free to call me anytime." The offer was a little less than expected given that I'd be giving up some sizable benefits for the move, so I sent back an outline of my current total comp and a counter via email. The recruiter and I met on Tuesday, 9/15 to discuss the counter and came up with a reasonable midway compromise that he was going to present to leadership for approval. He told me they were eager for me to start, which they'd asked me to on 10/5 ("or earlier"), and would likely have an offer letter to me by the end of day. On 9/16, he emailed me and said he was still "working on the adjustments" and would have an update for me by EOD Friday. But, he went radio silent. The next message I got was on Sunday, 9/20, at midnight local time, telling me they'd moved forward with "another candidate who possesses skills and experience closer to the position." It became immediately clear that my effort to negotiate likely led them to extend an offer to another candidate in the hopes they could hire at a lower wage. And I likely got the rejection after candidate #2 accepted their offer. I've worked at many companies and have been part of many hiring panels, but not once have we extended an informal (both in writing and verbal) offer to the chosen candidate, led them to believe they had a new role for more than a week, ghosted them, then rescinded the offer in favor of another candidate. Even if we couldn't meet salary expectations, we'd present our highest offer and give that candidate the opportunity to either accept or decline a formal offer. Instead, I was misled for nine days, while celebrating the fact I was in the negotiation phase with a company whose offer I was not only excited to accept, but with a team I was genuinely excited to work with. However, enticing two candidates with offers simultaneously is incredibly unfair and unethical. It was also shocking, devastating, and humiliating after six weeks of interviews, compliance with requests, schedule rearranging, completing a writing request, eagerly answering emails, and reaching out to former managers for their references.