I really wanted to like James Hardie. Every step along the way, the recruiter, hiring manager and others on the panel really try to make sure you understand their culture and how it's different and better than any other company's culture. After this process I am convinced that James Hardie tells themselves and others how great they are, only to mask the fact that there's a reason why they shift their focus every few months: this company is a mess. I first spoke with a recruiter for 30+ minutes who took it upon herself to grill me in ways a phone screening has never been performed before. And I didn't view that as a red flag at the time. I actually viewed this as a plus. "Wow these guys really want to be sure to have the right person for the role!" Yet, she continually asked the same question in multiple ways, hoping for a different answer. At the end of the interview, she admitted that I was a great culture fit for James Hardie, which only increased my desire to continue in the process, despite my initial thoughts. From there, I had a one-hour+ meeting with the hiring manager, over the phone. It was clear in this conversation that JH doesn't have a focus on the Pricing discipline. Pricing currently sits with Finance and it's been passed around to others within the organization. While I had hoped it was more strategic, given it's the highest level of Pricing in the org, it was described as a manager of hourly workers who process rebates. Despite this, I really enjoyed my conversation with the hiring manager. After this, I was asked to complete a personality test and a Wonderlic test. Both were time-consuming, but relatively easy. This isn't a big issue with me. Finally, I was asked to come in and meet JH personally, for 3 hours. 3. Hours. After nearly 2 hours on the phone, another 90 minutes in competency tests, I am being asked to meet with 3 new people, the hiring manager, and HR. Oh, and also do the Wonderlic for the second time - this time in person, because, they said "folks do better in person, let's give you a chance to improve!" It took nearly 2 weeks to get this in-person scheduled. Once scheduled, I had the chance to connect with the hiring manager, who gave me some intel on the folks with whom I've been meeting. Really thought that was a great precursor to finally meeting with JH. Once at JH, and mind you, I was asked to come in at 7am because of how busy these folks are at JH, I was to meet with the hiring manager, his manager (Finance VP), CMO and Controller. Every question I was asked was around what I would do to help fix their Pricing organization - nothing really on my background. As I'd bring up examples of what I've done in similar situations, it was really met with criticism because that's not the way JH does it. While the company was keen to bring in new resources to help in this area, they were more concerned with bringing in someone who fits their culture. It was a very frustrating meeting, as I was told to prepare to come with real-life examples to explain my background, yet I was continually grilled on "why didn't you do things the JH way?" even though I don't even fully understand what that means yet. After meeting with the humans at JH, I waited 30 more minutes for someone to find me to take the Wonderlic test again. Oh - someone in HR forgot about me because she forgot to set a calendar invite! This is going great, right? I finally hear back from JH around 10 days later, after exchanging calls with the recruiter. Not only did I not get a further interview with the President and CFO (as I was told the next steps would be), I didn't get feedback on my interview, and I was told the role was being placed on hold, to be revisited again "soon" and they'd be in touch. Frustration isn't the word to even describe this whole process. I invested a lot of time in preparing, discussing and learning about JH. I understand they invested time in me and others, and perhaps it's also frustrating to reach this point - but to put someone through a borderline-grueling process is completely unprofessional. But I suppose I'd hear "well, that's the James Hardie culture!" and that's great if that's the facade you'd like to keep. But at the end of the day, it reaffirmed my initial thoughts that this company is not a fit for me.