I received an email from an automated talent acquisition system informing me that I was found fit for a certain position I applied for, and was asked to choose a time and date for the HR interview. I selected a slot and prepared for the interview, but when the scheduled time came around, the Senior Recruiter didn't call. I checked my email several times - she was supposed to call my direct cell number. No email, no call, no update. I eventually figured she's struggling making the international call, so I reached out and sent an email. No response for 20 minutes. Finally, she answered back, explaining she struggled to find my phone number. When I sent it her way again, she still didn't call. After 10 minutes, she emailed back saying she doesn't have the area code. I sent it her way and suggested we hop on a call now and make the most of the time. She responded via email claiming she has a hard stop in 10 minutes, so we'll have to reschedule. The following week was our next interview - and yet again, absolutely no response, no call, no email. I thought I may have gotten the time wrong due to timezone differences and gave her the benefit of the doubt - only this time, when I emailed her to see if everything was ok, she didn't respond for days. Eventually, after nearly a week went by, she emailed me back saying my emails went into her spam folder. Again, we made plans to speak for the following week. This time, she did call (although several minutes late). The call lasted 30 minutes and was pleasant enough - it seems I have provided all the answers she was looking for and she was happy with them. The recruiter explained I had passed the first step and would be contacted by another recruiter to schedule an interview with the hiring manager. She also explained that Booking.com is speedy when it comes to hiring talent, that they're eager to hire and that I sound like the exact fit. Only then - you guessed it - no response. A week and a half went by, no emails, no one reached out - I even emailed (yet again) to see where things stand, out of sheer shock that Booking behaves this way towards candidates and utter disbelief, but to no avail. Dead silence. I even tried to connect with the recruiter on LinkedIn, to see if my emails were getting "junked" again, but she didn't respond to my request to connect. Finally, I received an email, after almost two weeks, claiming I am not a right fit for this role.

Had a pre-phone interview to talk about the job, what it is was and answer questions - super helpful to provide clarity on if I wanted to move forward with the job. Recruiter laid out a full timeline of what to expect in the process, how long things would take, and stayed to that timeline.