Finance - recruiting process full of red flags and manipulations. I never write feedback, but this was something else. TL;DR - stringing along, double binding, devaluation, projection of guilt. When the process ended, I got a long email saying I’m a strong fit for the role and got a call from HR saying they will wrap up the process next week and they just want to give other candidates a chance to finish process, but nothing to worry about. Asked if I am still feeling excited about the opportunity, almost insisting that it’s important that I do. What followed was a sequence of empty promises, ghosting and manipulations. Started out with boundary violations by not keeping promises and stringing along. For 3 weeks I was promised they are just “tying the loose ends”, “there is nothing concerning”, “we don’t want to lose your interest”. I would get a date of the decision and then on that date – ghosting. When I followed up, I’d get more long emails asking me to be patient and understanding and asking to remain interested. Promise after promise and (surprise surprise) not keeping it. In the second to last time I got an email HR actually named what they were doing by claiming the opposite – “we are not stringing you along”, and they are just tying the loose ends, gave final final final date and asked to wait patiently and to be understanding asking (again) not to lose interest.. guess the outcome? Ghosting. Never got back to me. Another week later I asked for any updates, she sent a long boiler plate email saying they prioritized internal candidate. When I suggested it sounds like she had that information for some time and didn’t let me know on the final final final date or at least before I emailed her, she instead of taking ownership and acknowledging that she crossed the boundary by ignoring the promise again and kept me hanging despite claiming just in the previous email the opposite I got more manipulations: 1. Altogether didn’t answer that (manipulation by ignoring and shifting focus elsewhere) 2. Devalued what I experienced – “it’s nobody’s favorite part” (devaluation) 3. And instead of taking responsibility and acknowledging it was unfair to string along and over and over ghosting me, she tried to give me projection of her own guilt by saying that I should be understanding (once again, implying that I'm not understanding enough - so trying to elicit feeling of responsibility from me) 4. And the usual “we respect your feelings” after stringing along for 3 weeks (double bind - actions contradict words)