I had an initial phone conversation with a recruiter, where we discussed the position and my qualifications. Following that, I submitted an interview homework assignment that included a detailed case study, a clean read exercise, and a writing task to demonstrate my skills and suitability for the role.

I had a negative experience with Murphy Research. I applied for their Research Associate role earlier this year. The first red flag was when the recruiter came 40 MINUTES LATE to my first-round interview. When the Zoom cameras turned on, I was surprised to see the recruiter wearing a stained, ragged-looking t-shirt to my interview, which felt unprofessional. The recruiter was apologetic about the wait and offered to postpone the interview. Despite the initial setback, I felt confident and thought the first round interview went well. However, apparently the recruiter did not even take a glance at my resume AT ALL. I told her about my past work experience and research projects throughout the interview, but she kept saying "Weird. I don't recall you mentioning that in your resume." Then she asked me to send her my resume AGAIN. After the interview, she made me do a marketing project that supposedly was only gonna take 30 minutes, but ended up taking me 3 HOURS to complete. She told me about this time-consuming project a day before a major holiday, which is ridiculous because they knew lots of people would be traveling (including me). Apparently other applicants here also took hours to complete this project, so the Murphy Research team should really be more honest about how long it was going to take. The fiasco didn't end there, though. A couple weeks later, the Murphy Research recruiter told me her team was really interested in me, so she wanted me to interview with two of the research managers. She told me this second interview would take TWO HOURS, so of course I spent the next few days preparing for it intensely. My interview was supposed to be on a Tuesday morning, but then the recruiter sent me an email Monday afternoon telling me that I wasn't qualified for the position and that I would no longer be moving to the second round of interviews. I felt like the Murphy Research team had tricked me into believing that I was genuinely being considered for the role, and that hurt. I had also spent money the weekend before at the hair salon and shopping for a decent blazer and blouse for the second round interview, which was all a waste.