Simultaneously Received an Invitation & Rejection from KPMG

Question

I'm a little dumbfounded by this one. And I'd like to know:

Has anyone else been having horrible interviewing experiences lately with Big-4 firms?
What factors could lead to a final-round candidate being rejected--without explanation or reason--when all the interviewers' feedback was positive?

DETAILS:

I interviewed for a mid-level role in a big-4 firm and got great feedback throughout the entire process. I invested 38+ hours in preparing. I have an R3 interview with a senior manager, and it goes great. He even tells me “you did great”! As expected, I get an email from my recruiter, congratulating me and asking for my availability for R4 (final). Availability is provided, and I wait…

A few days pass, and I sent a follow-up. In reply, the recruiter congratulates me again--and asks me to wait. a Week passes and I send another follow-up email. Then on the 8th day, I get a generic rejection email. No feedback. Nothing,

I write the recruiter and ask if there was a mistake, and the reply is basically “I don't know why you were rejected. I assume your last interview went poorly.” This contradicts the feedback I received from that interviewer. The interviewer gave me positive comments and even wrote me later to reiterate that they enjoyed the call.

Have you ever experienced anything like this? This seems remarkably rude, unethical, and unprofessional. They reject a final-round candidate, interviewing for a six-figure role, with a generic email. Doesn't this merit a phone call?

Am being too sensitive here?

Answer 1

Hi there,

This is really strange. It may have been an HR mistake from your description. As mentioned by Pedro and Udayan, I would call HR and clarify the situation over the phone.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there are a lot of mistakes on HR processes… (usually MBB and Tier 2 are good at this, by the way).

So don't give up yet, i.e., don't assume you were rejected. Call the person that interviewed you to confirm that you didn't pass, and if the answer is that you passed or that they don't know, ask them to confirm it. If you have no clear answer from this, then reach out to HR again and ask them to double check about the 4th round.

It's ok if they suddently change their mind and decide they don't want to hire someone (or that they hired someone already). It's not ok to pass someone and then reject them without any explanation.

Answer 3

This is beyond bizarre…I would call up HR at this point to have a chat about your experience and see what happened suddenly. Also if you have the contact information of the interviewers, reach out to them and explain to them what happened as well and how you are very confused with the process.

At the very least be sure to write about this on Glassdoor, so people are aware about the level of incompetence.

Answer 4

Very strange & unusual. Best get in touch with HR to clarify the situation.

Answer 5

Hi there,

This is crazy!

Definitely pick up the phone and call them. If they don't answer (try a call or 2 per day) after a few days, then reach out to your interviewers!

This is technically bad etiquette, but in this case you need to get a hold of someone! Message whichever interview you had the best energy with, and tell them you're just writing as you're confused.

Be very clear that you received a confirmation email for the next round, but were then subsequently told you were rejected. Say you're trying to figure out what's happening, and if there might be a system glitch (never blame a person/HR).

Good luck!

Answer 6

HR doing HR stuff!

Try to pull out all guns in getting a phone call with the HR - and clarify everything over the call instead of the email exchanges.

It is most likely a process mistake.