I'm a 3+ year HNer, using a throwaway because while I'm looking for work, I'd not like others to know this publicly (should we form a club?)
What the OP describes truly does seem to be almost standard operating procedure today. In one instance this happened even after I had substantial contact with the company:
* phone screen with recruiter;
* technical phone screen;
* completed a substantial pre-interview coding project;
* multi-hour interview with 6 technical interviewers,
including on-the-spot coding tests;
This process took a month and a half. I was assured by the recruiter that I did awesomely on all of these, and then, silence...
Only after pressing them for weeks did I finally get a reply: "sorry, we're not hiring for that position after all". It's incredibly rude to put someone through this kind of process, only to insult them at the end (if you acknowledge them at all).
I've been on the opposite end of the interviewing table many times, and I understand that there are all kinds of reasons to reject a candidate (technical skills, people skills, personality, just plain "bad fit").
And sometimes it's best from a legal standpoint to not even explicitly say why a candidate is being rejected. But a simple "sorry, we feel you're not a good fit for this position" as soon as you know you will not be making the hire, will save an incredible amount of worry and anxiety, and let people get on with their lives.
What the OP describes truly does seem to be almost standard operating procedure today. In one instance this happened even after I had substantial contact with the company:
* phone screen with recruiter;
* technical phone screen;
* completed a substantial pre-interview coding project;
* multi-hour interview with 6 technical interviewers, including on-the-spot coding tests;
This process took a month and a half. I was assured by the recruiter that I did awesomely on all of these, and then, silence...
Only after pressing them for weeks did I finally get a reply: "sorry, we're not hiring for that position after all". It's incredibly rude to put someone through this kind of process, only to insult them at the end (if you acknowledge them at all).
I've been on the opposite end of the interviewing table many times, and I understand that there are all kinds of reasons to reject a candidate (technical skills, people skills, personality, just plain "bad fit").
And sometimes it's best from a legal standpoint to not even explicitly say why a candidate is being rejected. But a simple "sorry, we feel you're not a good fit for this position" as soon as you know you will not be making the hire, will save an incredible amount of worry and anxiety, and let people get on with their lives.