Company taking a long time to respond re: potential job

[Thrice]

So to make a long story only kinda long;
1. Put resume on Indeed
2. Get a call re: a job from an internal recruiter. Discusses job with me and determines I'm not qualified (why did you call me then? )
3. 1 month later get a call back from same person and they haven't found anyone yet, says they're considering me again. Hiring manager is on vacation, will call back in 1 week.
4. 1 week passes, don't hear back anything. Call recruiter and she says hiring manager decided to look at other candidates.
5. 1 month later (2+ months now) hiring manager contacts me directly via email and wants me to do a phone interview.
6. Phone interview goes very well (from my perspective and his). Says he's going on vacation again and w/ the holiday (Labor Day) he'll get back to me about a 2nd, more technical interview with another party.
7. 2 weeks go by and I don't hear anything so I call and leave a message. Hiring manager calls back and says he'd still like to schedule 2nd interview, but it too is a phone interview
8. 2nd phone interview goes just ok, IMO. I don't answer some tech. questions as well as I'd like but I ask them questions specific to the job they think are important. This appears to be the final interview (either because they don't like me or they just aren't doing it in person). They tell me the 2nd party is going on vacation and they have a few more applicants to interview, but they'll get back to me by the end of the 2nd week.
9. No response after 2nd week.
10. Phone call by me yesterday to hiring manager's voicemail saying "hey, didn't hear back from you in the time you said, would like to know status of job, call me back".

This job has now been open for 5.5 months, it's been 3.5 months since they first contacted me, from the 1st interview w/ the hiring manager he told me I'm the only person he's found locally that met his criteria, and they've take a long time with everything so I'm just wondering, is this even worth my time/thoughts or should I just assume they don't want me or are too flaky?

The pay is good but I really don't know too much else because I haven't felt I'm far enough along to ask about other things like benefits, vacations, bonus, etc... I have a former boss who has worked there and she like the hiring manager and says the company is a pretty good place to work. I'm not thrilled about my current job and would love an opportunity to move on and do something like this potential job.

[FISCAL]

move on. find something else.

[Vision33r]

Then you should stay away, because most likely there's some internal issues at play. When I put in a req to hire some guys to work for me at one place. It took almost 6 months to get it approved. Some inexperienced managers would start looking for guys and forget to put in the req then ended up getting delayed by the approval process.

Then there are situations where some political changes within the firm possibly delay or change their objective.

So move on and keep hunting.

[Numbersix]

That's a terrible candidate experience, and points to there being internal issues within the company. I'd take that as a warning sign and move on.

[Thrice]

Yeah you guys are right and maybe I'm a masochist but I did email the hiring manager saying I was following up 1 last time. The fact I'm not a huge fan of my current job, the raise that this one could provide (single income family), and just not having closure had me go crawling back. But I'm definitely done waiting/wondering now.

[Diamond Dave]

2. Get a call re: a job from an internal recruiter. Discusses job with me and determines I'm not qualified (why did you call me then? )

That's what recruiters do. Talk with people and determine how close their skill or personality matches our needs.

the hiring manager he told me I'm the only person he's found locally that met his criteria,

This is a poorly organized company and the hiring manager is so incompetent he can only make a decision if he finds the exact person he's thinking of in his head. If you can't find candidates locally for your position, you either re-write the job description or you hire down and train up. This is really just fundamental common sense for anyone except the poorest run companies. I'd ask them why it's been open so long, but I know the answer already. The position isn't qualified, they don't have a clearly defined job description, and they don't really know how they'll pay for it.

[Thrice]

That's what recruiters do. Talk with people and determine how close their skill or personality matches our needs.

Understood, but this one didn't really ask me anything they couldn't have gotten from my resume. I asked more questions than they did because I was curious. I didn't mind the call when I first received it, it was just funny that I got 2 more followups way down the line when they couldn't find what they wanted from other applicants.

This is a poorly organized company and the hiring manager is so incompetent he can only make a decision if he finds the exact person he's thinking of in his head. If you can't find candidates locally for your position, you either re-write the job description or you hire down and train up. This is really just fundamental common sense for anyone except the poorest run companies. I'd ask them why it's been open so long, but I know the answer already. The position isn't qualified, they don't have a clearly defined job description, and they don't really know how they'll pay for it.

I definitely agree with you assessment that they are looking for an exact person which is flawed because they are looking for someone who has technical experience with their product, business experience in dealing with multiple departments and implementation processes, and analytical skills. Most people are going to excel at just 1 and get by on the other 2. Some may have 2 of 3 but going to be very hard to find the perfect candidate.

The other piece from talking with the hiring manager is what they're trying to do they haven't gone live with so they have this buffer they're seemingly comfortable with using up but from a candidate perspective it is bad because you're leaving people hanging and for them, IMO, they're wasting time they could be acclimating a new person to the role they'll be taking on.

I did hear back and was told they're still reviewing applicants.