Initial, standard phone interview was only about 15 minutes. Nothing crazy to note - just going over experience and salary expectations. Second interview was a virtual interview with a Senior Director of the department. This interview went very well. Insightful questions, nothing too unusual. Because of my experience, I had a different set of questions than normal. I felt good about the role. Third interview was a writing assignment. This is where I did not enjoy the process because it asked for functionality improvements for one of their clients. This is essentially an easy way to get free work out of candidates. I would bet my suggestions will be implemented on the site within the next month. I felt good about the assignment, but a few days later I got the rejection email with zero additional feedback as to why I was not moving onto the 4th interview. I asked for feedback, and was ignored.

So I don't usually write interview experience reviews but I feel like this was one of the oddest ones I've ever had. The first interview was an initial phone screening, pretty much just going over work experience and what the role was about. The second interview was a virtual one over zoom with one of the team leads of a different department, again more work experience and talking about the role. The third round was a written assignment, essentially how would you respond to a client if presented with various information. Finally there was the fourth round which was in person, I did as much research as I possibly could about the people I'd be meeting with and even looked at previous reviews that explained that you'd be asked about your high school experience. During the final round I went through all my personal and work history and even asked questions I figured would be insightful and thought provoking. I thought I did decent even if I was a bit nervous. They told me they'd get back to me the following week, I heard back two days later saying that "It was a tough decision but we decided to go with another candidate." Okay, I can understand that, maybe the other person interviewed better than me. I then emailed all the people I met with stating I was thankful for the opportunity to meet with them and while upset with the decision I understood. I did ask for feedback on what I could have done differently, no response. Nothing. I followed up again a few days later and still no response. How am I supposed to improve if I don't even know what I may have been doing wrong? Oddly enough, the job posting was reposted to linkedin a few hours after they sent me the rejection email which made me think they lied about the other candidate. Overall, the people I met were nice but I wish they would have given me any feedback, good or bad. This position also would have required me to drive into the office everyday which in a remote/hybrid world didn't make much sense, but if that's what they want that's what they want.