I did not apply normally. I reached out to the CMO to see if we can connect because I liked what they were doing in the influencer space. She suggested I consider this role. She was very responsive and very nice to me. After I had a phone screener with the interim director, he went silent. He had originally said I would be onto the next round. He finally replied a month or so later, after I followed up a few times, saying he had moved on to another assignment. Would have been nice to get a response earlier so I did not have to keep bugging him. So I reached back out to the CMO and she responded quickly saying the role was not going to be filled after all.
Had I gone through a recruiter, I am sure it would have been different. But I wanted to leave my experience because the CMO didn't have to respond to me multiple times regarding an open position.