I applied online.
I was contacted by a recruiter who said "We've reviewed your resume -- you have a stellar background!" I was then asked to do a "Video Interview". This immediately started to feel quite dehumanizing and demeaning.
I was told "The questions will focus on getting to know more about you and your past experiences." and I was given a link to a document to help me prepare.
At that link most of the example questions were not about "you and your past experiences", they were about the Box product. Some of them were pretty in depth questions, in fact. A person would have to spend quite a bit of time preparing to answer all of those questions about the Box product. And I was expected to do that before I even had the chance to speak to someone within the company.
So, I did the video interview, against my better judgment. It was a completely automated process done through a website (company name is wepow). For each of 4 questions, I watched a video recorded by someone at Box who posed the question, after which I had 30 seconds to consider each question, and then 1 minute to answer. In some cases, one minute really wasn't long enough to answer as well as I wanted to. Also, as it turned out, the time I spent looking at their "preparation document" mentioned above was wasted, as none of the questions referred to anything on that page.
I walked away from that experience already having a pretty negative impression of Box.
I then had a 30-minute call with a recruiter. She seemed a bit tense, or uncomfortable. She didn't ask anything substantial. Definitely not engaged. I've had many interviews in the last few months and this was one of the most uncomfortable (this, and the next one below).
The next interview was with someone who I was told manages people in this position, but in other regions of the US. Again, she seemed very disconnected and not really interested in being on the call. It felt like she was going through the motions. She went through her script, I tried to lighten the conversation up and get her engaged, but it really never clicked. I was trying to sell myself, frankly, because again there were very few questions from her that really allowed me to do that. I was really taken aback when she completely cut off the conversation when I was in mid-sentence, exactly at the top of the hour (it was apparently supposed to be a 30 minute call, although she was 4 minutes late). She said I'd hear from the recruiter in the next few days. I remember distinctly thinking "Well, I hope my manager is easier to talk to than she was."
A day or two later I received an email from the recruiter, Christina, that said "While your experience is impressive, it is not a direct match for the team's hiring needs at this time."
I have no idea how they could have decided this, based on any info they got in the interviews. Anything they know about me would have come from my resume, since they were not trying to get much information from or about me in the three interviews I did. Also I have 99% of the experience and skills they asked for.
As I was writing this review, I realized it felt like I was just being put through the process so they could say they'd processed me. It was as if they needed to reach some sort of quota, but never intended to move forward with me. In fact, that is EXACTLY what it felt like.
I spent quite a few hours preparing for and participating in these interviews. I feel as if I wasn't taken seriously, or treated respectfully or professionally. This was an experience I'm not going to soon forget.
