I was contacted to interview with the hiring manager on a Friday with less than 24 hours notice. I rearranged my schedule to accommodate the interview on such short notice. I was told from the hiring manager I would be moving on and hearing from the recruiter the following week, however the next round of interviews wouldn't be for another three weeks. After two and a half weeks, I followed up with the recruiter to ask about the next steps and received an automatic rejection email from the ATS database, not even a personalized reply from HR. Then Astroscale reposted the position this week. If this is how Astroscale treats prospective employees, I can only imagine how bad the culture must be working there to not value people's time and to ghost candidates in the hiring process.

My initial interview with the communications leader was a highlight (there was no phone screen by HR). She was engaged, thoughtful, and clearly a strong advocate for her team. It was evident that she would be someone you could learn from, and this conversation left me excited about the opportunity to move forward in the process. However, my enthusiasm faded during the next stage of the interview process. I was invited to the office for two, one-hour interviews, only to discover that three out of the five panelists would be attending remotely. This made me question why I needed to be physically present, especially since virtual interviews are now a common option. During the interviews, three of the five panelists seemed distracted and disengaged, which was disappointing and gave me the sense that the interview was not a priority for them. Within the first five minutes, I had the distinct feeling that I wasn’t going to be offered the role. Additionally, one panelist was an engineer who appeared to have no understanding of corporate communications, which was confusing and indicated to me that the interview wasn't well structured. Additionally, the interview questions from the first interview were essentially the same ones that were directed towards me in the second interview. After over a week of no communication post-interview, I received an automated response informing me that I wasn’t selected. On the same day, I noticed that the job listing had been reposted, which felt somewhat impersonal and left me questioning the efficiency of their hiring process. In the end, I wasn’t offered the position, and honestly, I’m fine with that outcome. I would suggest that Astroscale reconsider how they structure their interview process in the future—both in terms of respecting candidates' time and ensuring that interview panelists are relevant to the role.