I have been going through the interview process for MONTHS for a dream job.

Through the end of last year to the middle of March, I went through a grueling round of interviews, portfolio reviews, reference checks and writing tests. The communication in general has been quite slow. Updates regarding next steps has taken about 2 weeks each time (there have been 7 steps), but HR finally let me know on Tuesday that the interview process is complete, the whole team really enjoyed speaking to me and I should be receiving a final update in the coming days.

Then the hiring manager (the person who makes the final decision on whether to hire me or not) emailed me on Friday night (today's Monday) with an apology saying she's sorry for taking so long to reply, that the team was at an offsite event all week and she "hopes to have news very soon." I'm really confused on who she's waiting for news from since she's the decision maker. Does this sound like there is some sort of hold up/red tape on getting hiring approval internally? The salary was clearly posted on the job description and was communicated to me in the original HR screener so it's not like I negotiated a salary.

Truly can't fathom what the deal is at this point but I can't help feeling really upset and disappointed. I'm continuing my job search in the meantime, but this whole thing is just super perplexing and frustrating. Would like to hear similar stories or perspectives from professionals.