I applied online and heard back the next day that they wanted to set up a phone interview with the recruiter. The office was closed for the entire week of 4th of July, so the call was scheduled for two weeks out. At the time the call was supposed to take place, I never received a phone call. I emailed the recruiter, and she told me that the appointment disappeared from her calendar and that she wasn’t sure who she was supposed to call. She was very apologetic, and we rescheduled for the next day. The next day, she called right on time, and we had a good conversation about my current job and how my values match Pluralsight’s. At the end of the call, she let me know that she would be sending me a writing assessment, and that there would be four stages of the interview process:
1. Initial phone call
2. Writing test
3. Video conference with hiring manager
4. In-person interview
I took the writing test, which wasn’t very hard, and sent it back to the recruiter that same day. The following day, she let me know that she would send it along to appropriate people and let me know if I made it to the next stage. That same day, she let me know that someone would be in touch to set up with video conference with the hiring manager. At the end of the email, she said “have a good one!” so I assumed I would not be hearing from her again and would work with someone else moving forward.
At this point, a talent coordinator got in touch about setting up a video conference, which I scheduled for the Friday of that week. This is where it starts to go downhill. During the video conference, the hiring manager did not seem very interested in what I had to say (she kept looking around the room and seemed distracted). It also didn’t look like she was taking any notes about my answers. At the end of the call, she didn’t let me know about any next steps (I should have asked at that point, but completely forgot). I emailed the talent coordinator directly afterward and asked for the hiring manager’s email address so I could thank her for taking the time to speak with me.
I did not hear from the talent coordinator until Monday afternoon, and she just sent me the manager’s email address without any mention of next steps. On Tuesday, I thanked her for her reply and asked if they needed any additional information from me. At this point, I wasn’t sure who I was working with moving forward. I didn’t hear anything until Friday afternoon, when the first recruiter told me that she had been out of the office, and they were still interviewing candidates, but she would have an update for me by the next week.
The next week comes and goes, and I do not hear anything. At this point it had been two weeks since the video interview. On Monday of the following week, I email the recruiter and asked if there was an update, and she explained that she was meeting with the hiring team that day. She also explained I was one of the first interviews, so she was sorry for the delay and that I had to wait. The following day, she emailed me to tell me that they would be moving forward with other candidates who have a better fit experience-wise.
Overall, I feel I was really strung along during the process. If I didn’t have enough experience, or I wasn’t a good fit, why not just reject me at the outset? It would have saved me a lot of time and energy. I don’t feel that my time was valued, and the hiring manager did not even seem to be interested during my interview. This was a really disappointing experience for me because I entered the application process feeling really excited about Pluralsight and ended the process with a very negative view of the company.