I was contacted by LinguaLinx over LinkedIn; they were looking to hire some Remote Project Managers, and as I'd just left a project management role at another LSP (due to my moving to another city), I was open to the opportunity. I was interviewed twice over the phone: one ten-minute fit call, and an hour-long call the following week. In the latter call, my background and LinguaLinx's needs were discussed at great length. At the end of the call, I was told that the top candidates would be contacted the following week, and that they would be brought out to their Troy, NY, location to meet the team. They called me the very next day and asked me to come out to Troy the following week to meet the team. The woman with whom I spoke was very enthusiastic, and I took this to mean that they were happy with my credentials and considered me a serious candidate for the position. I flew out the following week for a two-day (Thursday and Friday) trip. To their credit, the accommodations were great; they got me a direct flight (about 50% more expensive than one with a layover) and a decent hotel and car rental. When I got there, I met with two groups, first, four management-level employees. We spoke for about 90 minutes, and they asked me some really general questions about localization, which I had no trouble answering, having four years experience in the industry. They seemed pleased with my responses, and didn't seem too concerned with my weak points. I then met with three people from the sales department, and we mostly covered the same material. I left after two hours, and they gave me a schedule for the following day, which consisted of more interviews from 9 am - 12 pm, and then an "employee appreciation" picnic from 12 pm onwards. I thanked them and headed to my hotel. Halfway to my hotel, I got an email from them stating that they appreciated my time, but that they were cancelling the rest of the interview. No explanation. No apology other than what you'd get in a form rejection email. Incredibly confused, I emailed back asking if they could give me any details as to WHY they were cancelling the interview, since I felt the interview had gone well and they had already spent around $1,000 to cover my trip there. I got a response from them about two hours later in which they stated that the fact that I had never worked remotely and the fact that I had limited experience with file types made me a poor fit for the role. The tone of the email was almost accusatory, as though it was my failure that I didn't meet their expectations (I may be reading a bit much into it, however). This result baffles me. During our one-hour phone call the week before, we had covered my background, so they already knew that 1) I had no experience working remotely, and 2) that I only had experience working with certain file types. If those were major concerns, I don't understand why they would waste TWO DAYS of my time (and $1,000 of their own money) bringing me out. I admit that those two weaknesses are valid concerns, but my understanding was that they were flying me out because they were pleased with my background, and I obviously wouldn't have wasted my time if I'd known I wasn't a good fit for the role. Also, my flight was at 5:30 pm the next day, so I was stuck in Troy, NY, for nearly 24 hours with nothing to do. If I had to guess, I would say that they simply don't know what they want for this role. They admitted that they've never hired remote workers before and that they've never hied production staff with previous experience, so it's possible that they simply don't know what they're doing. I would think, however, that making sure a candidate has the right background before wasting his time and your money flying him out is just common sense.