Disney listed a position across several locations, including my area, that was a great fit for my resume, so I applied. A week later, a recruiter called me for a screening. They were really nice, and the questions were fairly standard. Among the details they asked about, they checked if I lived in the location I had selected, and I told them I did.

A week later, they asked me to do an hour-long call with the hiring manager. They were a bit peculiar but seemed nice and gave a lot of good details about the role. Among the various questions they asked me, they too inquired about my location. When I told them I was in the location I selected, they suggested this was a good thing because the team that this role would be managing was scattered across several sites, and they wanted to avoid having certain locations get preferential treatment.

A week after this call, I received an email stating that I was not being selected to move on because of my location. It turns out Disney never wanted to hire in my area or any of the four other locations the job was listed in outside of California, because that's where the hiring manager was located. This was even though only a quarter of the team was in California, which would clearly create the preferential treatment the hiring manager said they wanted to avoid.

Between interviews and prep, that was over two hours wasted.

Are you located in this area where the job is listed?