Through a third party, I had prior experience with the company — specifically with this role — and knew I could do a great job. Applied through web site. My contact at the company also put in a good word for me. HR contacted me within two weeks to schedule a phone interview. Interview seemed to be going pretty well until the last five minutes, and then interviewer took a hard turn. She had dedicated a portion of the phone interview to assessing X equipment skill, which was not my strong suit. At the end of the interview, she asked if I had anything else I wanted to share. I said to her that if it came down to my aptitude or another candidate's on X equipment skill, I could come in and offer more extensive proof on why I was a better candidate. An earnest, respectful and motivated comment. She got suddenly and illogically hostile, encouraged me to "let her do her job." I have never experienced anything like it. It was such a sudden and irrational shift. After the interview, I went over every question and answer with a friend who is in HR at a large, well-known company. She suggested the possibility that the HR rep interviewed me because of employee referral but had a different candidate she wanted for the position — and manufactured a problem with my interview to discredit my candidacy. Seems in line with other reviews made here about office politics infecting the interview process. Or maybe the interviewer just had personal issues. I don't know. Only time I've experienced anything like it.

7 interviews, 1 test (that they never let me know they received), 2 month long process only to be ghosted - I emailed the person who scheduled my interviews to follow up and they said how would they know and to email a recruiter (never chatted with another person and they use autogenerated emails so can’t do that…), then the next week I guessed on an email for my would be manager to check in and they sent me a email back saying if there was an update they would’ve told me. I decided to be patient and three weeks later I got an email from a generic “Sirius XM” account saying “as you may be aware” the position was eliminated and to add them on LinkedIn! Signed, your pal Sirius XM. I get that companies restructure but 7 interviews is ridiculous even for a position they themselves described as basic help to keep other people from drowning under their current workloads. Towards the 5-7 interview I started hoping it wouldn’t work out - the interviews were stale, no signs of camaraderie and a clear need to scale business over establishing a good place to work.