The Trace interview questions

I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt here, but given my experience, it is really difficult to. Let me be clear that I have wrestled with posting this for the last six months, but in the end I decided that I do not want any candidate to have the same experience I did. My entire interview process (Oct-Dec of 2023) consisted of SEVEN interviews for the role - arguably much more than there should have been. The sixth interview (occurring AFTER my references had been checked by the way) involved me being flown out to meet with my potential supervisor, and the interview lasted three hours. Many questions were very organization-specific and very much in the weeds. The answers revolved around very specific solutions that, had this not been an interview, I would have charged a consulting fee for my time. I, along with my references, were very shocked when I did not receive an offer at the end of this extremely in-depth interview. A seventh interview followed with another member of the staff and I was informed four days later that I would not be hired. When I investigated post-interview with the search firm (who dropped The Trace as a client following the debacle that was my process) I discovered that I was the only candidate in the running at the time of the reference check, so I'm unsure what these additional interviews were checking for. Either way, my time as a candidate was not respected and I don't know if they ever moved forward with hiring a candidate or just continued on with their contracted services. They may have figured things out in the past six months - but I am wary and encourage other candidates to be so as well. This organization has a wonderful mission that deserves support but I am not confident they are organized enough behind the scenes to support this role.