I was contacted by LinkedIn through a former coworker as an internal referral. I liked the job description and admired the Company. Timing for a change was right. Location (Sunnyvale) not so much, but I was willing to adapt.
I was thankfully spared the HR screening (maybe because I was an internal referral, or perhaps due to HR ineptitude, as demonstrated later on in the process), and spoke to the hiring manager directly on the phone. Really pleasant conversation, checked all boxes (or so I thought), no questions about my current salary level (strange).
They very quickly reached out to bring me on-site for a round of interviews with the team. I accommodated their request and spent half a day to drive to Sunnyvale and meet with 5 people in 3 rounds (1 manager, then 1 manager + 1 employee together, then another 2 employees together). Still no questions about my salary... All 3 people/groups asked me EXACTLY the same questions, very standard "basic interview" ones. What really bothered me was that they could have saved time by combining all 5 people into one interview. I had to rehash the same old story 3 times in a row. Maybe they wanted to see if I changed it? The last two women were clearly reading the canned questions from their laptops.
After returning home I immediately followed up with HR to reaffirm my (honest) interest in the position. The response I received was that the hiring manager was out of the office but he'd "committed to reviewing the feedback and getting a decision as quickly as possible!" and "Let’s plan to connect next week once I have the feedback to discuss next steps, etc.".
A couple of weeks after this last email I went on vacation, and followed up with HR after returning. No response.
A week after, I emailed my internal contact and I guess he forwarded my (disappointed at the lack of news) email to the hiring manager who promptly emailed me to 1) tell me the job was given to someone else and 2) blame HR for not telling me "I apologize for not getting back to you sooner." (how about, more precisely, NEVER?). I replied that from a company focused on recruiting best practices I expected a better treatment. No response from either the hiring manager nor the HR rep. Classy.