I went through 4 interviews total: 1 AI interview and 3 with actual people. My final interview was with the CEO, who said it was mainly to get to know each other better since he had already heard good things about me from others. He also mentioned that the next step would likely be either speaking with one more person or checking my references.
After that, I never heard back. I sent a few follow-ups, and the recruiter responded once that they were wrapping up and she would get back to me when she knew more, but no update ever came after that in the promised timeline. It has now been over a month.
After multiple rounds and positive signals, this lack of communication is extremely frustrating. The job market is tough on its own, but when companies ghost like this, it's even more frustrating. Even if there is no final answer yet, they could just keep candidates in the loop instead of ghosting.