I applied through the website for an auditor position at Sandviken (Sweden). After a short time I was contacted by HR Direct, their in house recruitment team and asked to attend an interview an Sandviken. This was fine and after a further week I was asked to attend a further interview with a senior HR officer in Stockholm; this was only a 30 minute general discussion and seemed a little anodyne and largely pointless.
I was then asked to attend a further interview with the Head of Department, who was based in London and this was when things started to take a bizarre turn. I was asked to arrange the interview myself (?) and provided with a telephone number to call. After numerous unsuccessful attempts (15+) at making contact, I sent an email to the company and the Head of Department contacted me directly and asked me to meet him in London. The interview was badly organised and amateurish, but of medium complexity in terms of its content. I was told by this individual that he had no power or authority to hire anyone and that a decision would have to made by someone who they hadn't yet hired (!) Anyway, things went quiet for a few weeks and reference requests were made and completed. After a further period of weeks I was asked to complete a Briggs/Myers type test and then attend a de-brief interview at Sandviken (Sweden). Once again, this was not taxing and I left with a positive impression. I was told at the conclusion of this process that I would have a final decision on the recruitment process in a couple of weeks.
Several weeks elapsed and I contacted the Head of Department who basically just kept delaying and delaying. Eventually, he told me that a new Group Department Head had been recruited and that he may wish to be involved in my recruitment process. A further week passed (the process in total took 3 months +) and I was exasperated with the waiting, so I just phoned up and was told 'no' and given some vague reasons/platitudes as to why. The next day I was sent an explanatory email, which didn't elaborate any further.