First interview: phone interview with Recruiting Coordinator Second interview: phone interview with Director of Marketing Third interview (which I later declined): On-site presentation to a panel. I was asked to create a 30-60-90 day plan for the new role. The first and second interviews were more casual, the third interview which I didn't end up attending would've been more formal and difficult but it would've been a great opportunity to showcase my skills. Although I had to decline the third interview because it wouldn't make sense for me to move to San Francisco during a global pandemic. I had a great interview experience with Victorious SEO. The recruiting coordinator, Kathleen, was very thorough and walked me through the whole process. I know I would've enjoyed working there because it sounded like a great place to work.

Tl;dr: This experience was a horrible waste of time and a tremendous demonstration of organizational ineptitude. If you’re reading this and thinking about applying, don’t waste your time, there are better, more professional organizations out there that will actually value your time. I applied online, got an email asking if I could work in SF, I said yes, and then was asked for my availability. Next step was a 30 min phone screen with the recruiter. Recruiter was friendly, and asked pretty standard phone screen questions (although she did start the conversation with what my salary expectations are). About a week later I had a 30 min phone call with the Director of Marketing, she asked me about my background, my experience using Hubspot, and questions around what additional programs and applications I have experience using. I received an email outlining a prompt for creating a presentation to send. The presentation prompt was to basically walk them through what you would do in your first 30 days on the job. This email by the way was sent to me 5 pm on a Wednesday, with instructions to send the presentation to them by 5 pm Friday of the same week, giving me a truncated timeslot considering I had a full-time job during the same period. After sending in my presentation, I was invited to a video onsite interview with instructions that it would take 2.5 hours, and that I would be giving this presentation to 3 members of the team. I tried to ask the recruiter who the other two team members would be, but she wouldn’t say. We get to the day of the interview and I am told I will actually be interviewing with 5 people, not the 3 I was told I would be interviewed by. The first 30 min were w/the SEO Director, the next 30 min were me presenting my slide deck to the marketing, SEO, and sales directors via screen share. After that 30 min w/the hiring manager, 30 min w/the HR head, and finally 30 min w/th CEO. About 10 min into our call the CEO says “I’m going to shoot straight with you, and I don’t want to have a conversation about this, you don’t have enough experience, and in this role we don’t want someone who is just messing around, we need someone who knows what they’re doing.” He then asks why I wrote a certain headline on my LinkedIn with a condescending tone. 3 days later I receive a very generic email from the recruiter stating that they won’t be moving forward. Now at this point I had already suspected that after the demeaning way the CEO had spoken to me, the odds of me getting the role were going to be on the lower side, however I still was angered. Not by the rejection, but the way in which they chose to deliver the information. A generic copy and paste email that I could probably pull off the internet, with zero explanation on why they didn’t move forward. I tried to press the recruiter for any details or even just general advice or feedback, to which she responded “Unfortunately, once the interview loop has closed, it is our company policy not to provide any additional feedback to past candidates.” In a time where job candidates have real anxieties about their current job statuses because of the COVID-19 slowed economy, and new roles to interview for are limited, to then have a candidate spend 6 weeks interviewing for a role, and not even have the decency to inform them by phone that you won’t be moving forward with them, is not only disrespectful, it’s downright insulting. The idea that you can’t tell the candidate anything after the interview is also a huge joke. A final round candidate will spend 3.5 hours in real interview time (far more when factoring in time spent preparing the presentation), and the hiring team can’t take 5 minutes to craft an explanation on why they decided against hiring you, or even provide some basic pointers for your next role? As a result I have no idea why I was passed on, but if it was for the CEO’s concern that I was too “inexperienced,” for the role, that is hot garbage. If the CEO tells me in the final 15 min of a total 3.5 hour interview process that I am too inexperienced for this role, this shows extreme ineptitude and misalignment across their hiring team, because if I really was too inexperienced for the role, why did ever call me in for an interview for the first place? You can easily see my resume and whether I am qualified for the role. But if a candidate passes the first phone screen, and the second phone screen with the hiring manager, and you say you “loved,” the candidates presentation detailing their experience, and 4 of your senior team members didn’t seem to find a candidate inexperienced, than I am sorry but you have forfeited your right to now find the candidate inexperienced. In retrospect the presentation might be a way for them to just get free ideas from candidates without ever hiring them. Avoid these sirens like the plague.