I was going to respond same thing :sweat:. this seems like _normal_ startup hiring based on my experiences. People pass, people make stuff up to pass. Sticker shock could have factored in for CEO. I def empathize with the author. They thought they were a shoe in, thought everything was smooth and then wasn't responded to promptly, that sucks. I'm sure it was a rollercoaster during the time, excited about the new role, opportunity and $ and then denied for no known reason.

Not sure if it's reasonable to jump to illegal or unethical information?

See my other reply. Perhaps a bit of a jump but then why lie about the reason, especially so dumb as timeline?

Most people just shrug, mutter "companies can be stupid" and move on

Having hired over 200 people in my career, I always am willing to tell them directly why I didn't hire them and give them constructive feedback or if I found something they should make sure doesn't get discovered by other companies.

The only reason to lie about why I wasn't hired is because they are hiding something.

It’s not great that they were this unprofessional, but many (most?) companies will not give you the real reason for passing. You may get “there were better candidates” and it might be true, but it might just have been your expected salary, or your unwillingness to work weekends/long hours, etc.

It's not just that they passed or didn't give a reason, but they gave a clear lie as the reason.

Very true - I've reached the interview stage and been rejected probably a dozen times over my career. The only company which provided detailed feedback on my performance was Facebook. All the others just sent a generic rejection mail.

It’s all good providing feedback left and right until someone sues for discrimination. This risk is why hr prefers to ghost candidates instead.

That's why it's interesting he didn't ghost me. He did provide a reason: timeline. Which is a stupid reason since timeline can be pushed out. Then he didn't even try to give another reason and just ghosted me.