I applied for a mid-career position at Rakuten. The interview process took a long time, from the first contact (video interview) and online exam to the final interview.

My first interview result was good, so they scheduled me for a final interview. Before that final interview, they made me read two books ("Principles of Success" and "Golden Rules") by Mikitani-san, and write a short essay about my thoughts on the books. I thought this was just a formality before the acceptance interview, but alas, the final interview went through again, vis-à-vis my technical skills and project requirements. This time, the department manager was looking again at my experience, as I felt during the first interview. Should this part have been ironed out during the first interview process with the technical engineers?

He did not seem to like my experience, as I was lacking in a certain expertise. This is in contrast to the feedback I got during the first interview.

In my mind, do the department manager and senior technical engineers not discuss or meet each other to talk about the project requirements?

So, they assigned me again to another position and did my first interview. Two weeks after, I was waiting for the results, and HR DID NOT send any notification email. More than a month has passed. I sent a follow-up email again asking for the results, but NO RESPONSE.

I've been through a lot of interviews, but other agents/companies always promptly replied back to me regarding the interview results. But Rakuten, no! This is after I lost three days (unpaid leaves, of course) in order to attend several interview dates that Rakuten HR arranged.

Standard interview question