Probably one of the most disappointing interview experiences in my career to date. This particular BD role was to manage their CX partnership relationships in the UK as I had worked for over 4 years with their biggest CX partner. I assumed I would have been taken seriously as a candidate for this position. I also know most of the Kantar CX team already from working with them. It should have been a no-brainer that this was a perfect fit for me and therefore my application should have been seriously considered, but unfortunately this was not the experience I had. The one and only HR interview I had could not have gone better. I was assured I was perfect for the role and would obviously be going through to the next stage to meet one of the BD Directors - someone I had actually met before. I was then ghosted by HR for ages and had to chase them for the next steps. I then received an unbelievably cold one-liner by email to say I had not been shortlisted, a total contradiction to what had been confirmed on the first meeting. The reason being they needed a ‘sales hunter’ for the role. As sales hunting for new logo business is all I have done for over 30 years as an enterprise sales director, I went back and asked for further clarification and have been again ghosted by HR since! I then reached out to the woman I would have interviewed with as a next step hoping for further clarification, again explaining that sales new logo hunting is what I do and she did not want to get drawn into any discussion and was frankly dismissive to say the least. She directed me back to HR. It gets worse. I then have a friend from one of my previous companies reach out to me, someone with no enterprise sales experience, to say they had been targeted by the same HR woman to apply for this role! I then reached out to another, more senior recruitment leader at Kantar again for an explanation and he did respond saying he would look into it, but I have been left hanging while posts are sent out on LinkedIn pushing to get more applicants for this role. What’s wrong with this company? They cannot even show basic respect and to come up with the excuse they did was beyond ridiculous. This has been the most disappointing interview experience I have ever had. I could have done the job so easily for them with my strong CX connections and extensive sales experience. I could also have started immediately and I have a warm pipeline of leads to bring with me. My advice to anyone looking at this company is don’t think your connections will help you as they won’t, so don’t waste your time.