I have a friend in the US Foreign Service and this is very similar to the experience he had. Only after they qualify do they find out the job -- and location! -

I have a friend in the US Foreign Service and this is very similar to the experience he had. Only after they qualify do they find out the job -- and location! -- to which they'll be posted. This doesn't seem very strange to me at all, certainly not Kafkaesque -- for large companies that are very selective, always in need of new candidates, and do a huge variety of things, I imagine most would want to have the chance at anyone who qualifies. Anything else seems less scalable and less efficient for both recruiters and candidates. The recruiters or candidates need to do all the matching up front, instead of doing it only once the candidates and company are found to be right for each other. It saves everyone's time to go through the effort to match up for a specific team -- as long as there are plenty of options to avoid disappointment at that stage.