I went through several rounds of interviews. The first was with the HR manager and after a 2-3 weeks of no updates, I was contacted directly by the hiring manager. We had a phone interview and afterwards, was invited to interview with several members of the team on-site. I was on-site for about 3 hours where I interviewed with 1-2 people every 30 minutes, both with people I would directly work with as well as cross-functional peers. I was then invited on-site again to meet again with the hiring manager, the director of the team, and head of another department that I would work closely with. The 3 interviews between the hiring manager and 2 on-site interviews were all roughly 1 week apart. The interviews themselves were not difficult (in my opinion). I was given a verbal offer followed by an email summarizing the offer. An official offer would be provided upon acceptance of final terms and agreement of a start date. Unfortunately, the start date that I communicated was not acceptable for the team (4 weeks from verbal offer date due to an already planned overseas trip) and there was no option to discuss an earlier start date. They withdrew the offer and I spoke to the HR manager who seemed apologetic for the miscommunication and way the hiring process was handled. She mentioned that there was a directive from leadership to put the role on hold and being unable to start sooner forced the team to let go of the position. I was then told the role might be a temporary, contractor role for a while and they'll revisit in a few months. I have never been in a situation where a company went through rounds of interviews, presented an compelling offer, pushed to get acceptance/response ASAP, then withdrew within 24 hours of the verbal and email offer. It was a waste everyone's time and an emotional roller coaster. Thank goodness I did not give notice to current employer else I would find myself unemployed. On top of that, I was an employee referral and expected that the process would be handled much more professionally because of that. I was truly excited for the role but unfortunately, this experience has left a poor impression on me. I recommend everyone to wait for the official offer document and to pass all background checks *before* giving notice to an existing employer to protect themselves, not just for this company, but for all companies. I had never experienced this before in my career but it goes to show that it can happen at any moment.