Beware of the intern factory!!!!!! One of the most disappointing interview processes I've been in!
Applied for VA job and prepared for a full day prior to the interview - I was then "ambushed" with the information that they had much more senior candidates for the job, but they'll consider me for an unpaid internship. To me, it sounded like they were not being honest because:
1) I had worked for 2 start-ups in the past for 2.5 years, so I had more than the 0-2 years experience they wanted for the role
2) Their role is still open on their website, so I don't think they have limited slots - sounds to me like they are attempting a bait and switch situation
I still thought the company looked great and thought they might pay well after the internship, so I continued with the process. The entire process went through this junior HR person, so I was never assessed by someone actually doing the job. It was:
1) I had to do this corporate challenge (they said to do it in 6 hours, but it was impossible to do it in less than 8-10) - they never gave me any feedback, just told me I passed
2) A bunch of other interviews for like 10-15 minutes with the same HR rep asking the same questions, it was really odd. The HR rep did not have answers to my job related questions, and sent me invites for the wrong times and meeting durations, so I wasted my time preparing for what I thought to be interviews but were in fact just info sessions.
3) Two pre-boarding sessions explaining their complicated set up and asking for things like "Do you own a mac book, because we work on mac books" - I do have one, but I am now wondering if they reject candidates that own Windows laptops...
4) Signing an NDA before actually seeing the contract - I asked so many times for the pay range but they refused to tell me prior to the NDA (major red flag)
5) Getting a company email, seeing the contract, etc.
In the end, I saw that there were 20-30 other interns and realised it was all just a big scam, so I declined the offer last minute. The contract post internship was a joke, and I wish I could disclose it, but it really doesn't matter. The internship is set up so that they have dozens of people working for free (hence why they don't waste the time of senior VAs talking to candidates), and at the end they just hire the people that already know how to do the job best, instead of paying to e.g. actually hire them and allow them 2-4 weeks to learn the ropes, as other companies do. It is in my opinion exploitative.
