Recruiter said I’d hear back in 5–10 days. Three weeks later, I found out I was rejected through my friend’s dad.

I've been looking for a job in NYC for a while now. I am a communication journalism major and after months of applying to writing jobs, I decide to apply to something different. My friend's dad is pretty high up in an insurance company and suggested that I apply and after finding some underwriting positions available, that's exactly what I did. To my surprise, I actually heard back and I found out I got an interview. I did so much research on the job and the company and when I did my interview, I think it went pretty well. The recruiter thanked me for my time; told me he's looking forward to continuing this process with me and said I should hear back from him in 5-10 days.

Fast forward to a day ago, over three weeks later. I haven't heard anything and my application on the website still says under consideration. I was researching the company and apparently, they are notorious for taking a while to get back to applicants. My friend's dad reached out to see if I heard back and I told him that I didn't. He proceeded to send the recruiter an email to which he responded with the news I've been dreading. He told my friends dad that they decided to move forward with another candidate, and they had just been extremely busy and were unable to get back to me.

All that time I spent stressing about my interview and replaying moments from it in my head while overanalyzing everything I said. It was all for nothing and they couldn't even give me the courtesy of getting back to me. Now I'm back to square one.