First round was a phone interview with the VP of Sales- lasted for about 30 mins and asked questions both related to the position and more personality driven. Was asked to do a case study with minimal directions and submitted this within 48 hours. Received an email to come in for an interview a few days after - there was no detail as to who I would be meeting with or length of interview. When I arrived, it was a very open air office with a lot of stuff going on- the interview didn't seem totally planned and not all that were supposed to be included were able to make it (they said this as I had no idea who I was meeting with specifically). Met with various members of the team from operations, marketing, HR, etc. All asked me to go over my background/ what I did and then asked specific questions related to recruiting and the process- also wanted to get an idea of how I would pitch the company culture which was difficult as it was my first time meeting everyone and I had no feel except for the brief walk through I took from the front door to the conference room. At the end of the interview, the VP of Sales said he wanted to know my availability to come back and meet the founders- I left feeling overall pretty good about the meetings, with the exception of some people not being available and lack of it being totally organized. After the interview was finished, which took about 3.5 hours and I was not prepared to be out of my current work office for that long, I headed home and sent a thank you email. Within 15 minutes of my email being sent, I received one back that said that after careful review they had decided to pass on my candidacy. Don't get me wrong, that is totally fine and I had absolutely no hurt feelings- what did bother me, was that they discussed having me come back to meet the founders and basically prepped me for moving on to the next round. From a Recruiter's perspective, a few things could have been done differently to make my candidate experience an enjoyable one- 1. Always tell the intervewee how long the interview is going to last- I thought I was only meeting 1 on 1 with somebody so allotted about an hour of my day for the meeting. Since it lasted over 3 hours I was left scrambling when I got back to the office and it raised some red flags. 2. Never discuss a follow up interview if there is no intention of that happening. It always makes more sense for all those involved in the interview process to debrief and determine the next step. Clearly everyone wasn't on the same page. 3. Even if you know you are absolutely not moving forward with a candidate, never respond with that within 1 hour of an interview. As a recruiter myself, I constantly know that I'm not going to move forward with somebody right after meeting with them but I would never send them a rejection within 24 hours of that, let alone 1 hour- it shows a lack of appreciation and respect for their time and is somewhat hurtful. The follow up is what really made me have a negative experience, I would say the overall in person interview experience was neutral so that is what I will select.