I applied for the position via their website on a Thursday and was invited for a first stage "meet and greet" Skype interview the following Tuesday. The interview was conducted by their online magazine, TOA.Life, editor. The interview style was great, the interviewee was very personable, easy going and open. It felt like a casual conversation, and as such a very pleasant experience. Unfortunately I did not get the position. No hard feelings here.
However, in my rejection response I was asked whether I would be interested in speaking with the COO about other opportunities within the festival team. I replied yes and was set up with another Skype date for the following Monday and this is where I feel TOA really failed.
On the Monday I added the provided Skype ID an hour prior to the interview and waited. At 4 o'clock, the scheduled time for the interview, there was no movement on their end. I waited a full hour before sending an email back to the person I had been corresponding with politely expressing my disappointment and withdrawing my interest in exploring the possibility of joining the TOA team. To further compound my disappointment I was not contacted and provided an explanation or apology or even just acknowledgement of the missed interview in the hour or days following.
Whether this is a reflection of their organization, communication and management style and ability or simply that they do not care is a something that I can only speculate on, but whichever it is, neither reflects very well on them.
I'd like to reiterate that the interview was suppose to be conducted by the COO, not a member of an HR department, but someone sitting at the higher end of the organization. You'd expect someone in upper management to take pride in place when representing their organization to interested, potential employees. A real disappointment.