I recently went through a recruitment process with Adobe and unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience. I was initially approached by a recruiter and scheduled for an interview with the hiring manager. The conversation with the hiring manager went well, and I was told I would hear back by the following week.
However, I didn’t hear anything by the promised time, so I followed up with the recruiter myself. He informed me that I had progressed to the next stage and that I would hear about the second interview soon. The recruiter then told me that the team was busy but would have more information by the end of the week. At the end of the week, I had to follow up yet again, only to be told that the job opening had been cancelled due to internal issues.
I decided to send a polite thank-you email to the hiring manager, expressing my understanding of the situation and leaving the door open for future opportunities. The next day, the recruiter called me, and to my surprise, he was incredibly rude and aggressive. He claimed that it was unprofessional for me to contact the hiring manager and implied that I shouldn’t have written the thank-you note. This phone call exposed the recruiter’s earlier lie — it became clear that the position hadn’t been cancelled, and the recruiter was likely stalling for time while waiting for a final decision from the hiring manager.
I found this whole process to be both unprofessional and disrespectful. It's perfectly acceptable not to be selected for a role, but it is not okay to mislead candidates and then treat them poorly. I would strongly advise future candidates to be cautious and prepared for potential time-wasting and a lack of transparency from the recruitment team.