I was recruited to apply for this position via LinkedIn Messenger. I as asked by a USO recruiter if myself or anyone I knew would be interested in applying so I said that I was interested. We scheduled a phone screen for the following week which was a standard resume review, general overview of the position and information on the interview process, lasting about a half hour. On this call I was told that they were looking to hire pretty quickly because they had filled the position recently with a "bad fit" and needed to fill the position ASAP. After this I did not hear back from the recruiter regarding next steps for a month. After a month had passed I assumed they found another candidate but I received an email from the recruiter saying that the hiring manager had been out of town for the last month and asked if I was still interested. I hesitantly (because this seemed fishy to me) but still excitedly said yes. We then scheduled a phone interview with the hiring manager. Again, this was a pretty standard first interview followed with a request to set up an in person meeting to meet with 6 people including the HM. In person I first met with the hiring manager for one hour, then a panel of four team members for an hour and then with the VP for one hour. Questions asked were very specific and difficult. From there I was asked back for the final portion of the interview the following week. This included a presentation and another question and answer panel with three employees including the HM and the VP again. I was asked to pitch a corporate sponsor who I would like to target with the panel acting as the company I was pitching. This included researching a company that I saw as a good fit and putting together a case study/presentation for the team. My total time spent on creating this pitch was about 12 hours. I left the interview feeling good even though again, the follow up questions very specific and difficult. A couple days after the interview I followed up with the recruiter who sent me back a very generic email saying that the hiring manager decided to go with a different candidate. I was shocked and disappointed that after having spent three months, 7 interview hours and time on creating the case study, all I received was what seemed like an automated rejection email. My suggestion to the USO would be, if you have a candidate who you know is passionate and has taken the time to interview with you all the way through the final interview phase, that you take the time to have the hiring manager, or even the recruiter, call the candidate to let them know that they didn't get the position, thus giving them an opportunity to ask questions and learn how they can improve in the future.