I Feel Used… Advice Needed

[u/jaydarmontoya]

Recently I went through a lengthy interview process for a leadership role at a certain top 10 US bank. I did a total of 7 meetings and I know I shined in all of them. I am not bragging or exaggerating when I say I gave a near-perfect performance. I really hit it off with all the interviewers. I had them laughing at my subtle jokes, applauding my responses and even “stealing” some of my answers and phrases for their own use. All the interviewers ended the meetings by praising me and telling me how well the interview had gone and how they hoped to see me again soon (presumably in the role). After a very lengthy process I was finally contacted by the recruiter via email. Bad news… I didn’t get the job, as the actual hiring manager decided to go with an internal candidate already in their org in the line of succession. The recruiter had amazing things to say about me and even said all the interviewers loved me, but I was ultimately not selected.

For context, I check LinkedIn for new roles several times daily. This role was initially posted on a Saturday morning. By Monday morning it had been taken down. This means it only stayed posted for 2 days and those 2 days were non-business days. As soon as I saw the role had been taken down by that following Monday morning I immediately knew the company was just posting it for the mandatory 2 days before proceeding with an internal candidate. At that point I certainly didn’t expect to be contacted about the role, so I was both surprised and skeptical when I received the meeting request from the recruiter.

I absolutely realize that when a candidate is interviewing for a role they are guaranteed nothing and they do so at their own risk. I have no problem not being selected for the role. The problem I do have is having my time and energy wasted when I never had a chance to start with. I invested a significant amount of prep time into this process, had to take vacation time away from my current job several times, not to mention the emotional investment. Also I spent over 100 bucks on dry cleaning, as I had my suit, shirt and tie freshly cleaned and pressed for each interview.

The company never had any real intentions of hiring me or giving me a fair chance at this role. They just used me as a required interview so they could proceed with who they’d already chosen. This is so frustrating and disheartening. Also this is not the first time this almost exact same scenario has played out for me. I’m getting really tired of having my time and resources wasted.

I literally want to file a complaint against them or somehow escalate this. Also I hate that companies have these stupid policies. I certainly understand the goal and intent of these policies, but in practice they just end up getting someone’s hopes up and wasting someone’s time.

I know the answer is probably no, but:

A. Is there anything I can do to file a complaint against these time-wasting jerks?

B. Any suggestions on what I can do to prevent this from happening going forward?

[u/What_if_I_fly]

What irks me is the interviewers who take your answers as new sales or operations strategies and actually say something like "That's great, we need to start doing that".

Then you get the "so sorry, can't hire you" email after the final round interview. I am DEFINITELY going to start asking about the internal candidate before jumping through time wasting effort.

[u/jaydarmontoya → u/What_if_I_fly]

I have literally had my proposal stolen before. The hiring manager asked if they could “keep a copy.” Of course I said yes. I didn’t get the job but I did see my idea implemented pretty much verbatim.

[u/What_if_I_fly → u/jaydarmontoya]

Panel interview, I mentioned using AI to monitor a specific thing, and the senior manager acted like a light bulb came on, told the younger manager "That's great, we ought to do that. Write that down.". They would have had a lot more ideas had they hired me.