There were red flags going into the process. The recruiter gave me 2 positions to apply for. He suggested going for position B because position A's candidate was in late stages already speaking with the architect. I found it odd, having worked at this company before, usually external candidates of this level don't speak with architects. When I as given the prompt, it was for position A, and I was told to apply for position A. Wasn't this position almost filled? Peculiarly, the take home prompt matched the role for position B, and not A. Through friends that still work in the company, I have heard that candidates interviews can be cut short if they don't get the prompt right. Therefore, I went ahead and created a project fitting for position A instead. After presenting my project in the interview, the hiring manager confirmed I got the prompt right. Was the prompt switched? Throughout the interview process, I was continuously told not to focus on the customer problem or organization's mission. I found it weird because understanding the problem was integral to a product manager's role. Later in the interview, I realized this team does not own their product vertically, and so it seemed they needed a program manager instead. Or so I thought. The feedback I got for my interview were full of false statements. They stated they asked me questions they never did. They also manipulated and misrepresented my answers to fit those non-existent questions. The feedback included me not directing my answers to fit the customer problems. Additionally, they assessed that I was not at the Sr. Product Manager level, and to please apply under Product Manager II. I noticed that the role was taken down from all job posting platforms, and from Intuit's career site within a day after I interviewed. I asked the recruiter if there was an internal candidate for this role, and she replied that I was the only candidate who interviewed, and now they had to start all over again. I never saw the job post re-open for this role and it has been over 2 weeks. I believe there was already an internal candidate for this role, and for them to put me through all this just to "justify" their internal candidate is appalling. Then to top it off by condescendingly insulting me of my career level is way out of line.

Ghosted, after putting in so much time and effort. I don't think that there is any excuse for ghosting candidates, after multiple follow ups. Its understandable that sometimes situations might have changed, say the role is being put on hold. But the least one can do is to acknowledge that they are working on providing an update. There is a high level of accountability problem across the board for recruiters these days. They have one job (literally there is someone else for scheduling). I won't be naming names, but what goes around comes around. After all Its a small recruiters' market.