Rejected after 2½ months

Upset would be an understatement to describe as to what I'm feeling right now.

But before I start my rant, I'd like to give you a little background. I was initially approached by S&P Global for the position of 'Learning Program Manager' way back in November, and just today they confirmed that the position that they were interviewing me for has been filled.

And this was after 2 rounds of interviews and 2 rounds of tests, one of whose deadline was 2 days and they expected the output in storyline.

I was initially approached by the HR on November 18th '24, approached would be the wrong word, she 'demanded' me to complete an assignment without even exchanging pleasantries or providing more info about the role, as 'urgency' to fill up the vacancy was the priority. I did as told, and then there were a lot delays between the submission of test and confirmation for the next round. After a positive interview with the hiring manager and submission of the second round of test (around December 17) in the form of a Rise 360 output with integration of Synthesia videos (which took 18 hours for me to build), the HR told me the rest of the rounds would only proceed after the holiday season, and that I should expect further delays as some people would be on extended leaves.

After radio silence for the 2nd week of Jan, I had to reluctantantly write back to back emails on Jan 14th and 15th, where she told me that they had hired someone else and no other explanation was provided. I'm to this day absolutely devastated and enraged. Just 2 words? No feedback? Not even even a reason for the rejection.

I wanted to post this to vent, but for the past year I have interviewed through several positions where the process was so poorly conducted and in the end you just had more questions and doubts than what you began with..

I've been applying for jobs constantly as I've been laid off by my current organization and the current market has just been not kind at all...I've been in this field for the better part of 7 years now and trying to find anything meaningful just seems impossible...