1) I’d initially applied for an Account Executive role, had a 20-30 minute conversation with a recruiter, who then invited me to a hiring event they were having. The hiring event was like speed dating, except you had 3-10 minute interviews, and the rest of the time was meeting with some of the employees in a common area. There were about 20-30 potential applicants at the event, of which they were moving along 10 or so to what I understood to be a final round for 4 spots total across 2 teams. I moved to that next round, and met with the 2 managers that were hiring, one of which I’d previously interviewed with at the hiring event and one that was new to the company. The first one I interviewed with was the one new to the company, and directly told me if I didn’t get that position to apply for an SDR role with Proofpoint just to get some more experience. The second person I interviewed with wasn’t much of a conversation, and he really didn’t have any questions for me since he’d previously interviewed me. I was told at that visit that I was one of the final ones to be interviewed and they were meeting later that day to discuss the candidates and would have a decision by the end of the next week (my interview was on a Friday, and the next Friday would be the one going into Labor Day weekend.) I sent my thank you letters, and did not hear anything by the end of that next week, which I understood since it was a holiday weekend. I gave it about a week and a half after the holiday and sent a follow up, again no response. I followed up with the recruiter again about 2/3 of the way through September, and finally got a response that he hadn’t heard anything but would check for me. Finally at the end of September, I get an email at 3am saying that they went with another candidate. 2) I then contacted the recruiter at the beginning of October that I’d been working with asking about the possibility of the SDR, and mentioned that one of the managers previously had suggested that for me as a backup if I didn’t get the AM position, and I’d seen they had an opening for an SDR. The recruiter got back to me and said he’d arrange a meeting with the hiring manager for that. I did a Zoom interview for the initial interview with the manager, and it was going well until the end when I was offered to come in for an in-person interview with the team, but questioned my desire in sales. Why even offer to move me along if that was a concern? I go to the in-person interview and met two of the potential future team members, and then the manager came in but pretty much gave me the impression that I was a waste of time. Again, why invite me if you had that concern? I followed up after the interview and never heard back. My conclusion about Proofpoint, at least at this time, is even if you are in the final stages of an interview, expect to get ghosted as if you’re an early stage anywhere else.