The interviewer was polite and friendly, but this was a very strange and uncomfortable interview process. During two calls of roughly 30 minutes each, I was asked question after question - e.g., "what would you do in this situation?", "what would you say you need to improve?" - most often focusing on vague hypothetical scenarios or what I perceive to be my strengths or weaknesses. Very little of what we talked about actually focused on specifics of the role itself, the work I would do there, or even on the work I've done previously in other jobs. It was an exhausting experience that left me with few insights into the role or the employer.
After the second interview, I received an email on the following day telling me that they were moving forward with other candidates whose "profiles better suit the needs of the position". I emailed back to ask for more detailed feedback on why I wasn't suitable but received no reply.
At no point during either interview did I interact with my potential line manager (e.g., a Head of Marketing), only the talent acquisition specialist. I also got the sense that my answers to the many questions were being recorded either for reference via a transcript or for automated analysis.
As said previously, these were some of the strangest and most bewildering interviews of my entire career. Insightful may wish to include staff from the actual business function - marketing - in the interviews so that 1) the candidate can get a better sense of the role and work and 2) their potential manager/co-worker can get a better sense of the candidate and their experience/skills. But simply having two calls with a talent acquisition specialist asking a long list of vague and generic questions is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile for anyone.
Another huge red flag: zero transparency over pay rates. The interviewer did not provide a pay rate for the position or even a broad range, instead expecting me to make a bid with my "expected compensation". Although Serbia is not in the European Union, and new EU pay transparency directives may not apply to full-time contractors (as opposed to full employees in the strict legal sense), it is still extremely disappointing to see a company such as Insightful using these kind of tactics regarding pay. It was very off-putting for me and does not reflect well upon them.
