Applied online in early June. Brief phone interview with HR in early July. Then all-day interviews in early August. Two weeks later, HR called and said they were offering the position to an internal candidate. Two months later, they still have not sent the official email they said they would send, closing out the position. Expect everything to operate on "academic time." If they had an internal candidate for the position, they should have just promoted him instead of wasting everyone's time and energy on these fake interviews meant to fulfill some kind of legal obligation to say "we reviewed a diverse range of outside candidates!" before doing what they were 90% sure they were going to do in the first place, give the job to someone they already know. Because seriously, unless they want their internal person to leave, they're going to give him the position. Or, at the very least, they could note that an internal candidate has applied for the position so that outside candidates won't bother wasting their time. But that would be playing fair and why does any employer need to do that, in this job market. I noticed that the actual job offers noted here are for Researchers or for junior-level positions. The more senior positions that require experience are probably being filled by internal candidates, so beware. It might be good interview practice, in any case.