I applied for a position in the fall of 2014 and was contacted by an external recruiter. We set up a phone interview. Between the time of me applying for the position, which I'll call Job 1, and the phone interview for it, the company posted a more advanced, management-level position that I was also qualified for, which I'll call Job 2. So as to be considered for both, I applied online for Job 2. I did the phone interview with the recruiter for Job 1, and mentioned Job 2, which she was familiar with, but didn't seem to realize had been posted. A few days passed, and the recruiter emailed me to set up an on-site interview with the hiring manager, who is a vice president. She then needed to reschedule me for a few days later, which was fine. However, I wasn't sure which of the two positions the vice president was interviewing me for (perhaps both and he would decide which I was best for?), so I confirmed with the recruiter it was Job 1--the more junior role. When I arrived on-site, the vice president's assistant greeted me by a different name from my own and assumed I was there to interview for Job 3, a position I hadn't heard of, wasn't qualified for and isn't even in my field. Obviously, there had been some mistake. I gave my name and what I thought was there for, and the assistant called the recruiter to confirm how to proceed. The vice president was a few minutes late, but we did have a good discussion, and it was evident he was interviewing me for Job 2 (the more senior-level one). I called the vice president about two weeks later; he said he was in a meeting and would call me back. He didn't. I called again several days later, and he said he had completed first round interviews of seven people and that "One candidate really shined. It's not you." I honestly don't believe he intended the comment to have any particular weight; he's just not the type of person who thinks through how things might sound before he says them. Straining my eyes in the dim wattage my low shine provides, I managed to see well enough to dial his number again and check the progress of the search a few weeks later. Woolpert was true to form; he thought I was asking about a job in a city I had not interviewed for, then thought I was asking about Job 3 from above. When we got straight the job I was asking about, he explained he thought the recruiter had communicated to candidates that the position had been filled. She hadn’t. Hopefully the new person(s) will go a long way toward smoothing the communications and hiring process in the future.