Hi,
I have done 5 partner rounds (4 + intro round) of interviews with Kearney Australia.
Between the 3rd and 4th round they seemed to be stalling with a 3 week gap despite confirming after 1-2 days informally that I have passed it. Then the the final round finally took place even though I told them after the 2nd round that I had an alternative offer (which I did) and the 3rd interview was my best one by far.
After that I waited 2 weeks to then be told that feedback from everyone across all dimensions was great, yet they decided not to proceed to to a change in hiring strategy. I seem to have heard that it was also down to hiring capacity now. Note I applied for the manager role in the FS team.
At the end the (fairly junior HR person that gave me the news via a call) said that they may want to reach out back tome again at the end of the year (so in 4-5months time) or start of next if things change.
Is that just an Australian polite way to reject someone and make you feel good or is it actually likely down to the fact that business is down (just like in Europe atm) and they froze hiring.
I suspect change in hiring strategy could also mean they were looking for someone locally from Australia or a diversity hire (which I am not).
I also wonder if me letting the partner in the final interview know that I got a promotion at my current company (one of the best FS firms in the world) impacted it negatively to the extent that they though ok well if we give him the offer now he will probably reject us.
I am super confused since despite pushing the HR lady at the end to highlight anything that I could improve on she couldn't / didn't highlight a single item -which is a first for me since in every other case I was told I could improve on x or y.
Also it was the longest and most frustrating interview experience spread over 3-4 months that I ever head and getting this odd message at the end is incredibly confusing.