I was contacted for two phone interviews. HR told me that they couldn't find an internal candidate and I was there number one pick of two external candidates, and was asked to fly in for an interview. I booked my trip and was ready to go. Before leaving on the trip, I saw that they had removed the job posting. We all know that they will only remove a posting if they eliminated the position or there has been an accepted offer. That said: I knew before I left for the trip that I wasn't going to get the position. Long story short, I was interviewed and went to the plant with the other candidate... Awkward. I quickly realized that the other candidate was internal and obviously already had the offer accepted with comments like "when I get here, the first thing I need to do......." complete waste of my time and theirs.