Hi,
The wild goose chase I'm talking about is job-hunting! I've been out of a job for 10 weeks now and wanted your opinion on something that happened to me recently. I'm over it now but at the time it knocked my confidence and made me feel pretty despondent.
I was invited for an interview whilst still in my last job and it was at a small company in the location that I have recently moved to, so it seemed like my dream job. The people seemed very nice, interview and presentation went fine, and I left with a good feeling about the job. Didn't hear anything for a few weeks until my referees got in touch to tell me that they'd been approached for a reference and that it sounded as though a job offer was on the cards. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much but was secretly excited, however no news came for another couple of weeks. I eventually received an email which I knew straight away was bad news because it started way too positively saying how they were extremely impressed with me and how my references were glowing, etc. Unfortunately due to a contract being pulled they were unable to offer me a position at the present time but they were keen to come back with a job offer if the situation improved. I was disappointed and knew it had been too good to be true, but was pleased at least that they'd been considering me and it really did alot for my confidence.
3 weeks later however, the same job advert appeared (looking for 1 person this time) on a number of job sites (different from the ones that the original advert had been placed on). I was pretty surprised and wondered why they hadn't been in touch seeing as they had been adamant that I was ideal for the job! Sent them (2 people on interview panel) both a polite email asking if it would be appropriate for me to reapply and eventually got a vague reply from one of them saying that they'd noted my interest but that the other person would be dealing with recruitment on their return from holiday. Sent another polite email a week after their return and got no reply whatsoever - this was 6 weeks ago.
I know there's a lot of smoke and mirrors with small companies and their funding situations, and I know that I should have just phoned them immediately to catch them on the hop, but I'm just really disappointed that I didn't merit a reply. I spent a lot of money travelling to the interview, spent a lot of time preparing the presentation during the busiest time of my project, and had to put in a lot of extra hours in the lab in order to take the day off to attend. I would have much preferred them to be honest and just tell me that I was unsuitable for the job rather than give me false hope. I came away from the situation feeling like a bit of a fool. Anyone experienced anything like this before?

I think the original reasons for not offering a job were probably valid especially as they had gone to the trouble of checking references.  What stands out from your post is that the second interview was for one position on a number of 'different' job sites. Essentially this is a different job specific that has to be readvertised.  I suspect from the response you received that there was some internal politics going on and to be honest, they probably had an internal candidate that was potentially going to take up the job. Also is it possible that the different sites may indicate another financial backer who may have different views on likely candidates, or have specified a different interview panel to the original panel.

I can imagine your disappointment at not being successful.  I think you need to take on-board the original feedback as representative on how you did, extremely well! Next time, I would put in your application for a second time thus making sure your interest is noted with the right people for that job advert.  Keep looking as you never know they may have more vacancies once funding is realised.

Thanks Dunni for reading my post and for the helpful reply. I think you're right about the internal politics - I should probably just give them the benefit of the doubt and presume that the interviewers were put in a difficult position that was out-with their control. I'll keep my (wary!) eye out for any further vacancies. Thanks again for your advice.