Hiring process was very chaotic, a real annoyance!
Applied beginning of December and did not hear anything from Expedia, despite following up on several occasions by e-mail and phone, until end of January. Nobody could tell me who is responsible for the hiring process and even the person, who posted the ad on LinkedIn was totally clueless at what stage the hiring process was or who was responsible for the recruitment.
After about 6 weeks - ok, I have to be fair and have to mention that the Christmas and new years holidays were during this time - I received an e-mail from a recruiter (for the sake being able to follow this messy story, let's call her "recruiter A") over LinkedIn, approaching me for a job at Expedia, that she was hiring for. I mentioned in my reply, that I applied for another job already and maybe she could help me with getting in touch with the correct person.
Shortly after that I received an e-mail from another recruiter (let's call this one "recruiter B"), who wanted to have a brief telephone screening with me. As I was not available at the proposed time I asked for another appointment.
Before recruiter B could answer with a new date and time I received an e-mail from recruiter A, telling me, that my skills were not matching the job description and she would not proceed with my application.
The next day I open my inbox, only to find a new appointment proposal from recruiter B for the telephone screening. I answer her e-mail and let her know that recruiter A already said, that they would not take my application into consideration anymore.Already being quite upset with the obvious chaos in their recruitment department, I asked recruiter B to talk to recruiter A in order to figure out, what is up with my application.
Quickly after my last e-mail I received clarification: Recruiter B was actually not hiring for the position I applied to, but a totally different position in a totally different location - she never mentioned that before. In my answer I explain to her, that I am neither interested in the other position nor the other location and that recruiter A should get in touch with me to let me know if she still wanted to talk to me - keep in mind, that recruiter A already said, she would not continue with my application.
Next thing is an e-mail from recruiter A inviting me for a telephone screening with a proposed date and time. Since I was not available that time I answer recruiter A with general time frames that I am available. Next appointment proposal from recruiter A is outside these time frames. I answer her, that I am not available and refer to my last e-mail and the given times I am available. Next proposal worked for me - took only (what seemed like) 27 e-mails to find a date for a bloody telephone screening.
Telephone screening was OK. Was supposed to take 10-15 minutes, took 45 minutes!
General questions about my career (asked myself numerous times "did she even read my CV?!"). and my previous experience. General questions about skills and how they would benefit Expedia and the position I was applying to. Nothing too difficult. She mentioned that she was uncertain about my language skills and also said openly, that this might be a problem.