Verbally

I’m seriously pissed off right now. I went through a long and exhausting hiring process—five interviews, each lasting about 90 minutes. After the final round last week, the hiring manager verbally offered me the job on the spot. They told me to wait for HR to send the official offer and even asked me to not accept any other job offers in the meantime and to let them know immediately if I changed my mind about anything. Up until this point, every single communication—interview scheduling, feedback, updates—came directly from the hiring manager. They seemed genuinely enthusiastic and made it feel like I was already part of the team. Fast forward to today—a full week later—and I finally get an email. But not from the hiring manager. It was their assistant writing to tell me that they went with someone else for the position. No explanation. No apology. Not even the courtesy of a call from the person who led the entire process. Just a flat, impersonal email from someone I hadn’t spoken to before. I feel completely blindsided, misled, and like my time was totally disrespected. I get that verbal offers aren’t binding, but asking someone to stop job hunting and then quietly hiring someone else behind the scenes? That’s just low. Has anyone else been through something like this? How did you handle it?