Had good third round interview with director. HR mentioned they’re progressing other candidates too?

Hi all,

I recently interviewed with a director for a fairly big international legal services company in the third round - it’s pretty much been a week of consistent interviews between the HR screening call, the manager interview and this. I’m very interested in this as it’ll genuinely be a big thing for my career. The director seemed happy with me throughout my interview and I came off the call feeling okay, at the end the director said the people team will be in touch and that the next step will be an introductory conversation with their current clients.

Then less than an hour after the interview the regular HR contact I’ve been communicating with called me to ask how I found the interview/role, I said it went well and that i’m still interested (paraphrasing) and HR then explained they are ‘progressing other candidates’ and the next step will be an introduction to their client. She said if I get selected (at the director’s discretion) for the call with the client then either she or her colleague will be in touch, but if it’s quiet for a few days then I shouldn’t worry as she is taking a bit of annual leave/paid time off, but all the feedback for all my interviews has been consistently very positive (her words.)

Thing is I’m completely lost as to where this places me. Again it’d be super big for my career to land a role with them (I initially applied for a role they decided was a bit beyond my experience level but redirected me to something similar, which I accepted), and it isn’t like I haven’t been rejected before but I’m kinda confused why HR would bother calling me after an interview like this and saying they are progressing other candidates but also being almost optimistic about me? Any advice would be appreciated since I’ve pretty much been ruminating on it since it happened.