I was recruited by this company when a friend passed my resume on to his director. I made it clear to them at the outset that I had no experience in their industry, and that I did not wish to waste their time or mine if that would be an issue. They assured me that no, my skills and experience were enough to make them interested in continuing.
Over the next 3 months there were 5 remote interviews. These were fairly casual, discussions, with them asking about my skill set and previous work. And they spent a good amount of time describing their environment and the position available.
Finally a face-to-face meeting was held. This position was based in SF and reports to a director in Technical Services. As I was on the east coast, the meeting was held in NY.
It consisted of me presenting a "solution" to a group of six people from sales.
It turned out that I didn't get it. The only response I got was that they were now looking for someone with experience in their industry.
I later learned that there was a difference in how SF and NY saw the position. SF wanted a technical person. NY wanted an experienced ad salesman. Six months later and the position was still open.
I was excited about this opportunity. I'd heard great things about the people there.
But I ended up feeling strung along. The process took a great deal of my time, largely I feel because this company didn't really know what they were looking for.