Had a very unprofessional and negative experience. Applied for a position and went through an in-person interview for it. This first interview went fine, other than when I said I was from Oregon and one person brought up politics in a negative way. I did think the hiring manager went too far in saying things like “I’m already envisioning you on the team” and “I’m picturing you doing well in this specific area” and saying multiple times what a strong candidate I was and asking about my willingness to go to another location for a role. I know better than to chalk up nice words to meaning anything, but I still think a hiring manager should not be this excessively positive in their language and demeanor, especially when they don’t end up hiring you. Anyways, I ended up seeing on the portal that I was no longer under consideration with no email communication, and it took a while before the hiring manager emailed and said they had to close the initial position and repost it for whatever reason. Here’s where things got particularly unprofessional. They dragged my application along to the new posted position, which took a month. I finally got notified about a second interview. I scheduled it, and the DAY BEFORE, the hiring manager calls me and tells me they want a presentation and for me to create a communications strategy. The directions were absolutely terrible, and it actually sounded like she wanted me to create their entire strategy, which would be impossible. I asked clarifying questions, and it sounded like she didn’t understand how a communications strategy was put together because she lumped odd things together and wanted it all in one. It was my partner’s birthday and so I took her up on the offer to reschedule to allow me more time than one night. Cut to the next week, and she joins our interview 15 minutes late, she isn’t on camera and seems to have joined from her phone, people she said would be part of it are not part of it, and at the end of the presentation, she tells me to send her my (unpaid) work. I am very wary of people using interviewees to get free work, but considering I was still in a position to be hired, I sent it. I then waited quite a long time before the portal said I was no longer under consideration, and I received no personal communication despite how much time and effort I put into this process.