The first phone interview was truly bizarre. I’ve encountered strange things in my career but this was a first. I received an automated email confirming the scheduled time and was told to call an 800 number if that time didn’t work. There was no personal connection at the start. The day of the interview came and I talked to a person who has clearly been outsourced. This may have well been an automated interview by a robot because that’s how cold and awkward the interview was. The interviewer barely spoke English, had a thick accent that didn’t help when speaking over the phone, had strange pauses in between my answers and her questions and asked me questions all over the place like my age and if I needed sponsorship alongside more in depth questions about my experience with CPG and crisis communications which she didn’t understand. The fact that I interviewed for a Communications position with someone who didn’t understand my responses despite my repeating every answer twice and pointing to it in my resume made me feel like she wasn’t capable of taking down what I was saying. And I was right - a week or two later I received another automated email saying I am not moving forward in the interview process. This was no shock but alarming to me that someone who clearly doesn’t live in the States and doesn’t understand the role she’s interviewing for means that someone like me with actual relevant experience was passed over. Major red flag. If I was moved on to the next stage of interviews I would have declined anyway.

The process consisted of an initial phone interview with the hiring manager, followed by an in person interview with the hiring manager, some of the hiring manager peers (different functions) and the human resources representative.