After submitting my application online, I was sent a 30+ page document, somewhere between a business plan and a training book, in lieu of an interview. The company promised that this document would somehow make the hiring process easier than if I had just interviewed in a traditional way. I'm still not clear on that logic, but I read it.
After reading the document, which took over half an hour, I was then asked to complete a sample project that all applicants were required to work on as part of the application process. The document said the project was expected to take 3-5 hours to complete (all of it unpaid). I have no idea why, but I did the unpaid project. I should not have. As it turned out, I donated half a day of unpaid labor to apply for a job at a company that wasn't actually hiring.
After submitting my completed project, which took around five hours to complete, I was told that I would need to wait 2-4 weeks for editors to review my submission. Two days later, I received an email saying oops, they'd over-hired and were pausing hiring without reviewing the sample project I'd submitted. The company said they planned to start the hiring process again next year, in about three months (to which I said no thanks).
Overall, the entire process made me feel disrespected as a professional and devalued as a human being. It was one of the most unacceptably unprofessional "interview" experiences I've ever had, and I have no further interest in ever working for this company.
