Let me first say that this isn't my first time dealing with Dotdash Meredith's lengthy interview process. I've once gone through an interview process for a staff writer role and spent around 15 hours on an edit test that required me to come up with 10 pitches, rewrite existing articles, and write one of my pitches. The day after I submitted this test, I had an interview with the editor who did not even look at my work, and then I waited around until finally I reached out to ask about the status of my application. They, of course, rejected me. This was January 2023. Fast forward to this year, I decided to give Dotdash another chance. I applied to be an editor, and the nice hiring manager told me she thought I'd be a better fit for their e-commerce writer role. After my initial call with her, I had an interview with the editors which went well. They gave me another atrocious edit test that involved changing certain elements of an existing article, pitching and finding multiple products to feature, and writing a sample article. I thought it wouldn't happen to me twice, but it happened again! I still never heard back until I reached out to the hiring manager who said the editors went with another candidate but she sent my work to a whole new team. No response yet. This process started in early February so I got the hint.

I had to do a long, unpaid edit test. The interviews were great, but doing such a long edit test left a bad taste in my mouth. These should be paid.