The CEO is the hiring manager. Let me explain. Here's the interview process: 0. You get in contact with the company (a recruiter contacted me). 1. Phone coding interview 2. Onsite technical interview with engineers 3. If you pass round 2, then on a separate day (after your interviewers from round 2 talk about you), 1:1 with VP or CTO or similar, and then the CEO. The interview process started off really well. I enjoyed my technical interviews (phone coding session, then 2 separate onsite sessions. This was my first serious technical interview in over 8 years (I stayed at my first company for 8 years) and so of course, I was a little tense. But I made it to the 3rd round and had very pleasant talks with the VPE and CEO. After that, the Sr. Eng Manager contacted my 3 references, all of whom gave me a good word. (One of my references contacted me after his call with the Eng Mgr and said the Eng Mgr was ready to hire me, basically.) The holidays happened, then the new year. Recruiter tells me that the offer was written up and waiting for the CEO to sign off on it. A week goes by, no word. Recruiter tells me that the Sr. Eng Mgr was going to meet with the CEO to discuss and find out what happened. Another week goes by. Finally, I call my recruiter and ask what happened in the meeting. (I already had a feeling the CEO vetoed the offer, since this interview process went long already.) The recruiter said that my offer was declined, even after Sr. Eng Mgr and recruiter tried to rework numbers. The reason? One of my interviewers said that he asked a question that I didn't seem to quite understand, and he said he phrased it weirdly in a way he didn't do before. Sr. Eng Mgr said the engineer was blaming himself, but CEO took issue with that (toward me) and asked the engineer if he had asked a question and anyone ever misunderstood him before. The answer was no. So then, I was basically then categorized as "a good, solid developer, but not a good hire". The recruiter said that was the one piece of feedback that he "was able to get". So here's what I take away: 1. If I made it so far into the interview process that the CEO wanted to interview me, then pursue references, why would he change his mind at the last minute when signing my offer? It wasn't like I was asking for $500k. 2. The CEO harps over and over about culture, culture, culture. Just google his name and read all his interviews. Now read through all the other reviews about this company, both good and bad. Judge for yourself whether you want to work for this company now. 3. I am female. Did that have anything to play into the veto? i.e. it made me "not a good hire"? This is not a case of sour grapes, like "Boo hoo, I failed at interviewing and now I hate the company because they didn't give me an offer". I have gotten several rejections during my job search and I feel nothing about it -- I plan to re-apply to those companies. This however, has been the best and worst interview experience for me. Best, because I know what to look out for, and worst, because, well, now you know my little story.