Communicated with a couple recruiters at Riverbed for a number of months. Originally, had a phone interview with the hiring manager. Told that I wasn't quite qualified for a Sr. Tech Writer role but that 1-2 more entry level positions in the department would be offered in Q2 or Q3 2012. Waited from Nov 2011 to March 2012 and figured I'd try contacting recruiter again. Asked about entry level tech writer roles; was told they decided to hire a Sr. Tech Writer. Very nice of them. Continued search until June or so 2012 and they once again posted a "Technical Writer" position in either the San Francisco or Sunnyvale office. Reached out to recruiter yet again (keep in mind they were initially impressed with me or I wouldn't have been wasting my time). Finally, got a phone interview set up with the manager of the team. Phone interview lasted about 30 minutes, interviewer was cordial and asked the usual types of questions (i.e. describe experience, what you're looking for, where you see yourself in the future, why Riverbed, technical experience, etc) and also let me know what they were looking for. Both he and the initial recruiter were impressed with my qualifications and expressed a genuine interest in having a more entry level writer join the team given the current state of the team compromised nothing but senior writers. Felt that bringing someone less experienced on board in an entry level (for the role) capacity was a big plus. A few days later, received an email from HR for an in person, 4 hour interview with 8 members of the tech pubs team. You can imagine how exciting this was for me since the company (so I thought) had a great reputation as a collaborative and supportive environment with hard workers and intelligent people who were passionate about what they were doing. Spent about 4 hours in a small conference room interviewing with a large panel, one after the other. Half of the interviews were phoned into the conference room which I found a bit peculiar but figured much of the team worked remotely. Most of the interviews went well in my opinion with the exception of one guy who really showed no interest whatsoever. He came in and stared at his iPhone for 2 minutes before even saying a word to me really and then launched into a diatribe about how he didn't care about my writing samples or my background and basically just threw fastball type questions at me. That was the least engaging interview of all 8 and he wasn't even a member of the writing team so I'm still baffled as to why I was to speak with him. One of the other interviewers over the phone was trying to stress my being better placed in a support position and continually asked me why I was interested in Technical writing. That made me uncomfortable to be grilled like that despite standing my ground and really explaining the benefits of my background and interest in the field. Still at the end of that call, this person ended it on a positive note saying how interested she was in my background and that she was grilling me purposefully and finally that she thought I'd make a good addition to the team. Had "lunch" with the dept manager which basically consisted of a sandwich, nothing more. I found it odd that I wasn't at least offered a cup of water to wash it down with. Felt uncomfortable having to ask for some. Just...weird. The manager specifically gave me a lot information about the team, the company, as well as how he saw that I could fit into the team. What gave me additional hope was that he was explaining to me what I'd be able to start with on the team, learning their style guides as well as how to develop the Riverbed writing style. Finally was thanked for coming in and speaking with the team. that everyone really enjoyed meeting me, blah blah yada yada, and that he would be collecting feedback between the day of the interview and the next day. This interview took place on a Monday so he said I would be hearing back fairly quickly, within a couple days. Couple days went by, heard nothing, most of the week went by and heard nothing. Finally contacted the recruiter that Friday to find out what was going on, but of course she had no knowledge of the decision...yeah right. One hour or so after I called her, I received a mainly canned "thank you but no thank you" letter from the dept manager. They basically turned me down for the very same reason they were impressed with my qualifications in the first place. Very upsetting and I wish these people would not think out loud when talking to candidates getting their hopes up when they really have no intention of extending an offer. I hate being played with. All in all, a very negative experience with Riverbed. Why waste 4 hours of someone's time and PTO if you're not really seriously considering them. Additionally, why should the candidate be responsible for tracking down updates from managers 2-3 days after an alleged promised update?