I discovered the job description for this Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) opportunity through a website called ExecThread, though the role had already been posted for 24 days when I discovered it on February 15, 2021. The position was being handled by an outside executive recruiter, which I wrote to and received a reply back a couple of days after. I was also able to figure out through a combination of LinkedIn profiles and CZI press releases who this role would most likely be reporting into. That was Sandra Liu Huang, the Head of Education for CZI, who I also wrote to directly. After writing to Sandra I heard back from the executive recruiter. An initial call with the recruiter was set up a week later. That call went well and the recruiter set up the next meeting with Sandra a week after that. My meeting with Sandra went great. We shared many overlapping interests in the nonprofit education space. As a next step I was told I would have four additional (phone/Zoom) interviews which happened a week after our call together. One interview would be with the head of a CZI partner organization, and the three additional interviews would be with executives within CZI. The four meetings were spread out over two days. All of the conversations went great. I was excited about how well the interviews with everyone had gone. A few days later I received a wonderful hand written note in the mail from someone within the CZI Recruiting team. It was very thoughtful and while I had been excited about interviewing with CZI up until that point, the thank you note clinched it. I wanted to work at CZI! After receiving the thank you note I didn’t hear anything for two weeks. I reached out to the recruiter who expressed surprise I hadn't heard anything back. The recruiter told me I would not be moving forward, that CZI wanted someone who was more "hands on" from a product management perspective, and that the definition of the role had changed somewhat since I first started interviewing. As you can imagine, that was disappointing news to hear, but the recruiter said everyone I spoke with commented on how much they enjoyed speaking with me, and they would like to keep me in mind for future opportunities. I'd like to think that was not some canned recruiter reply for letting someone down, but it did come across as genuine. It was also backed up with other communications with CZI. That's my CZI interviewing journey. I really enjoyed learning about the education division of the organization, as well as many other great things going on at CZI. The people I met with were smart, committed, and caring about the great work being done at CZI. I plan to apply again, hoping the next time I do I'll be hired.