I was contacted in late September 2021 by a member of the Fast HR team via LinkedIn to see if I would be interested in the role. I researched the role and the company and determined I was well qualified for the position, but explained I was only interested in roles that allowed me to flourish in a leadership position with compensation that matched my experience. At this time, I provided a preferred salary range in order for us to continue discussions and was informed that salary range could be met by Fast.
The communication throughout the process was below what I expected; they were slow to return emails and one member of the leadership team had to reschedule our interview multiple times before they arrived to our meeting (unprepared). There was extensive time between interview steps (1-3 weeks); this led to the hiring manager confessing he didn’t remember our first interview by the time we arrived at our second meeting.
The interview process was extensive and inconsiderate of my time. (1) I first had an HR screening interview late September (30 mins). (2) I next had an interview with the hiring manager in early October (30 mins). (3) After I passed that round, I was sent an extensive “case study” where they requested I complete a handful of exercises / process flows so they could review my work (3 hours). (4) Once the hiring manager reviewed my Slides presentation over the case study, I moved onto the ”final” step where I had two interviews in mid-late October with a possible direct report (30 mins) and (5) a possible collaborator (30 mins). (6) Following that, at the beginning of November, I had an interview with the hiring manager (30 mins) and a member of senior leadership (30 mins). (7) Finally, because the senior leadership member was unprepared for our first meeting, a second was scheduled a few days later (30 mins).
Overall, I spent approximately 6.5 hours interviewing for this role. At the end of November, (2 months later), I was sent an email stating they would not be moving forward with my candidacy, but they were “thoroughly impressed with my background, and [would] like to stay in touch.” I replied to the email to thank them for their time and ask for constructive feedback - I received no response.
They later re-posted the position, shortly after they declined to move forward.
I was hesitant and uncomfortable with participating in the case study exercise because I was concerned that there was no way to prevent them from utilizing my work product once they received it. I felt as if my expertise was being gathered for free, in lieu of paying for consulting services. I’ve participated in a handful of director level interviews and have never had to provide this amount of material during the interview process. Because of this experience, I’m unlikely to do it in the future.
