I went through an extensive hiring process for a design role, which included five rounds of interviews and a design test that took a week to complete. After all that effort, I was offered the position, and we entered a salary negotiation phase. During this phase, HR ghosted me for weeks despite my repeated follow-ups, mentioning that management still hadn’t responded to her. When HR finally got back to me, the offer was rescinded due to a misunderstanding: she interpreted my inquiry about improving the offer as me being insistent on meeting a specific number. It felt as though they had never handled a salary negotiation before. I clarified that this wasn’t the case and accepted the original offer, only for HR to go back to management and rescind it again—this time citing a completely different reason: adjustments to hiring plans, budget cuts, and team restructuring. The poor communication, repeated ghosting, and inconsistent explanations made this an incredibly frustrating and unprofessional experience. Candidates deserve transparency and respect during the hiring process, and this fell far short of that.