First time I write a review about a job interview, the most astonishing I've had in my life, I hope it will be helpful.
I sent my resume through a job board and got called a couple of month later.
The first interview was over the phone with a friendly person who invited me for a group interview in their parisian office a few days later.
The first group interview was a lot of fun, about 20 people were invited and 4 groups had been created to gather information about Meltwater, there was absolutely no tricky question, and the atmosphere was great. It seemed like a dream company to work for, they repeated their great values one million times: respect, fun and "number one" spirit.
The second interview was also a group interview and we were about 10 interviewees for 5 interviewers (one of them came from Norway, all very young). For 3 hours we made some role play and we were challenged on our sales skills, in french and in english: the kind of exercise you may do at school or on group interviews for large consulting companies (Altran etc.). I assume they were looking for a strong personality rather than a killer resume, which seemed to be good and fair at that point.
The third interview was "one to one" meaning the candidate alone in front of the meltwater employees previously met. They set up a table with a white paper, a pen and a bottle of water and on the opposite side the 5 interviewers in line (like when you are passing an exam at school, very weird and embarrassing space configuration).
The first 20 mins were like a normal interview, more situation exercise etc.
In the middle of the interview the tone changed and they told me in an aggressive way that my CV was irrelevant for the job i was applying for (so why have they called me back 3 times ?!). Then they added that i had to be ready to work practically 24/7, and make 100 cold calls/ day, and that I would have zero personal life.
Then, one of them (who was not there for half of the interview) told me that i would have to be ready to "cut my salary in half" (we had never mentioned anything about money, she had no way to know how much I was making in my previous job) because "everybody wants to work for Meltwater".
Maybe it was a a recruiting strategy but this arrogance and aggressiveness amazed me so much I was completely speechless!
They have probably changed their mind about my profile while I was speaking (as I changed my mind about wanting to join their company), and it is part of the game when you apply for a job but I would have never expected that from a company which brags about their core value RESPECT and treats your 10 years long experience CV like if it did not matter.
Cherry on the cake: after 1 phone call, 2 afternoons and a 1 hour one to one meeting I received a standard rejection e-mail on a sunday night... Remember the core value? Respect!