Theres about a million and one things that can slow down a hiring process.  We get searches all the time that we will get into maintenance, get several candidates interviewing, and then BAM… "Yeah Mike we’re actually going to put this position on hold until Quarter 3".  This happens everyday.  Trust me, I hate it more then the potential candidates I get to call all and inform that I’ll be in touch in September if they are still in the market.   Everybody wants a bump free ride from resume submission to hire but the reality of the situation is that there is no such thing.  Of course, patience is a virtue and these frozen searches do defrost into actually positions.  I had a client with a fairly standard AE opening, nothing fancy, just a couple years experience on traditional mediums.   I got a nice batch of AE’s rounded up and began sending them in one by one.  I was told they were doing great and it was really going to be a tough decision.  After the last candidate went in I figured this was a wrap.  This position will be filled and we can move to more searches with this client.  Thats when I got the call.  "Mike, corporate called, they are working on a new hiring process…  Yes Mike it does mean that…..  I know I’m disappointed too!" .  So the search froze for several months.  This really isn’t totally rare.  On the brighter side of things, the AE they had their heart set on did hang in there and was rewarded with a larger salary we were initially expecting.  So all is well that ends well, just keep in mind it takes time.