Experience at Top 4, face to face office interview

Hi folks, I wanted to share my experience with one of the Big 4 consulting firms at their Hyderabad office.
In mid December, I was invited for face-to-face interviews on a Saturday, which felt more like a walk-in drive, suggesting they were in urgent need of filling new roles.

I arrived at the office well before the scheduled interview time, only to wait for two hours. The recruiters seemed completely clueless about the roles they were hiring for or the specific skills they were looking for. To make matters worse, one of the recruiters said outright, “We know you haven’t had breakfast, but unfortunately, we can’t provide anything.”

Following this, I endured four painfully excruciating interview rounds. The first two rounds were conducted via video calls with interviewers who were oblivious to the role's requirements. They seemed more focused on questioning my job-hopping history than assessing my actual skills or experience.

The fourth and final round was conducted in person at the office. By then, it was around 2:30 PM, and the interview turned into what felt like a hostile “stare-down” competition. The manager seemed completely clueless and asked me grueling questions about my career choices, team management experience, and process handling. The tone felt more confrontational than evaluative.

After all that, I received a call while driving back, informing me that I had been selected. I was relieved and moved on, trusting their promise that the remaining onboarding processes would be completed soon.

On Monday, I followed up with HR, only to be told that all onboarding formalities had been sent – but I had received nothing. After multiple conversations, HR claimed their internal team might be on leave for Christmas, which could explain the delays.

After two weeks and the holiday break, I followed up again, only to be told the team was still catching up. A few days later, I reached out again and finally learned that my candidature had been dropped. Apparently, they found my work satisfactory but felt lacked domain knowledge.

Throughout this ordeal, I had rejected another offer from a competitor because I was waiting on their commitment.

This experience raises several questions:

• Why does a company of this stature, already notorious for its policies, continue to show such disregard for transparency and respect toward candidates?
• Why bait candidates for weeks, withholding critical information, only to drop them at the last minute?
• Why subject candidates to hostile interviews under the guise of “stress testing” when they are already trying hard to secure better opportunities?

These practices are unfair and demoralizing. Companies must do better if they truly value human capital.

Is this what consulting businesses are coming to? No integrity. If you harass a potential candidate before they even join, like this how would anyone ever join these organisations?