Over the last few years I have applied for a couple of different positions. The first position I never heard anything from them, the only way I knew they were no longer interested was by checking their website and finding the application had moved from open to closed (which that in and of itself took 3-4 months). The second time it was a similar experience. Then after they closed my second application they called me and asked if I would be interested in a similar position. We discussed the position and found it aligned almost identically with what I was currently doing. They had me fly to their office and meet with the various people in the department and with people this position interacted with outside of their department. The people were very nice and it was a very encouraging experience. This disappointment came in when at the end of the day I was finishing up with the executive recruiter and he was discussing next steps, I asked him what the timing would be in hearing back from them. He said "You are exactly what we are looking for, if I have may way you will have the job and we should be able to get in touch with you by the end of the week, possibly the beginning of the following week." Well I didn't hear back from them for more than two weeks and it was by email. My belief is if you fly to an organization for a face to face interview, you should be given the courtesy of a verbal conversation when not selected. I ended up calling them to understand better what happened since I was told I was basically an ideal candidate. It was a good conversation and I don't have any hard feelings, but it was a bit confusing and I felt I got several mixed messages.