I applied for 2 seperate publishing positions and interviewed for both. I interviewed 3 times for one and 2 times for the other. First round is a HR screening, standard questions and quite easy and short. Second interview is with the exective publisher, around 1 hour long. Third interview was a presentation. Both interviews were for the same position but for different accounts and areas e.g computer science and environmental science. I found both publishers struggled to describe the job title, conflicting explainations and then were frustrated with me for not fully understanding what they wanted from me. I prepared intensely for all interviews, and took time off work which resulted in income loss, where I was asked questions that one could only know after working for the company for quite some time. Certain questions required me to have access to certain data which they acknowledged afterwards, yet it was frowned upon that I couldn’t give them a satisfactory answer to an impossible question. Each interview were months apart, they couldn’t communicate at all and I had to follow up multiple times over many weeks to be updated. I prepared a final presentation which they only provided positive feedback for, only to then be told after the 4 month saga that they were hiring internally.