Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was in my early-mid twenties and trying to make the internal jump from top-tier Help Desk to SysAdmin I had a Director who did this. The earlier interviews were fine. I was fairly green, but I seemed to get the basics of the position, was very eager to learn, and had the recommendation of my (large) department's management up to VP. They asked me technical questions which I did pretty well on. Then the Directo…
It seems pretty bad to do this on an internal transfer.
Yeah... that was what really got me. I could see doing it and then at the end being like, "Ok, here's what the deal is. I came at you like this because this job is high stress. When things go down, we lose millions of dollars. If you can't handle that type of pressure, you won't succeed here. [Insert meaningless compliment about having great potential or something if you really feel like not being an asshole, leave it out if you do.] However, it seems like you might not be a great fit for this position at this time."
Or... at least e-mail the internal candidates afterwards (there were 3 of us, none of us got the job) and let us know why. Or tell our managers and let them tell us. Something besides beating us down and letting us flap in the wind.