If you’re willing to give some inexperienced companies the benifit of the doubt, you can reasonably assume they just might not have it together yet. I doubt there was mal-intent, it sounds like budgets and headcount got yanked back, which sucks for both the candidate and the team that is trying to hire.
In a larger company I’ve worked at (and have hired for), they had a process where if the candidate passed the first 2 interviews, you basically get a formal “intent to hire” process started which reserves money for the position that cannot be withdrawn except for VP-level intervention.
In a larger company I’ve worked at (and have hired for), they had a process where if the candidate passed the first 2 interviews, you basically get a formal “intent to hire” process started which reserves money for the position that cannot be withdrawn except for VP-level intervention.