Was head hunted by this company, they had a super fast and responsive process. I completed a take home case study, met with the CEO multiple times, and came in person and interviewed with both the CEO and CTO all within two weeks.
They gave me a warm email response after the in person interviews and immediately asked for references.
I gave them my current boss as a reference (a risk I took given the signals I thought I had gotten from them) along with two other strong trusted references.
Then they completely ghosted me. They stopped responding entirely and never told me if the position was filled or why.
They also reached out to my boss to set up time, to which he responded immediately, and then they ghosted him as well and never spoke to him.
I felt this was pretty unprofessional, especially considering how responsive they had been and how late stage I was in the process, plus the personal risk I took asking my boss to be a reference. It felt very uncaring and careless especially after I had met and chatted extensively with both founders in person. All it would have taken was two minutes to send me an email saying they went with someone else or explaining whatever happened, but I never got anything of the sort. Just completely ghosted.
Alas, I think it was for the best and I likely dogged a bullet.