The hiring process was initially smooth and had progressed to a very advanced stage. I received verbal and email confirmation of the intended offer, was briefed by HR on the compensation package, submitted identification and onboarding-related documentation, and understood from the HR that the relevant internal system approvals had been completed.

Despite this, the hiring process was subsequently stopped due to an internal hiring freeze, which was initially framed as a routine role review process that would take a few weeks. In between the initial confirmation and the cancellation was a period of uncertain waiting without any signals for a few months.

I appreciate that business circumstances can change, but the late-stage cancellation was disappointing given the significant time invested by both the candidate and the hiring team. It would be helpful for candidates to have greater clarity on the certainty of headcount and hiring approvals before progressing to advanced stages of the process.

Advice to management: Consider ensuring that headcount and hiring approvals are sufficiently confirmed before taking candidates through extensive late-stage processes and onboarding steps. Where circumstances change, provide candidates with clear and timely communication about the situation and their options.

I wanted to walk through an example of how I approached requirements gathering.