The was the most time consuming and in-depth interview process I've ever experienced. Let me begin by saying that on one hand, I appreciate that the company is clearly very careful and selective of who they bring in to the organization as a culture "add" and someone who has the right values - thus, the process is thorough and lengthy. On the other hand, it is an extremely unrealistic amount of time to expect out of someone's lives for a coordinator level role - it's way too much to expect just to get denied after the third round (spoiler alert).
First, I had a phone interview with the hiring manager at the beginning of May. The interview was pretty in depth, and she let me know at the end of the call that I had made it to the next round. She also let me know to expect about 5-6 rounds of interviews...The second round was a one-way video interview where you only had one chance to record and submit your response. This wasn't too challenging, but also not ideal given the lack of human interaction. I made it past that and to the third round, which is where I have the most feedback. This was an "on-site" virtual panel interview which consisted of 4 separate interviews, adding up to 4 hours total with a lunch break in between. There was a Live coordination assessment, a Mindsets & Values portion, Cross-functional interview, and a Hiring manager interview. I actually really enjoyed each portion and meeting everyone, except for the live coordination assessment, which is the most frustrating part given that that was the ONLY interview that the hiring manager was sitting in on and where I know I had the most trouble with. While I am sure there is feedback provided from the other interviewers, it feels unfair that the only one the hiring manager was involved in was the one that was most challenging. The live coordination assessment consists of two people sharing a google doc with you and asking you to read several prompts/ "use-case scenarios" out-loud and come up with a response shortly after. While this seems fair and easy, my ability to really process and digest the questions was extremely lacking as it was nerve-racking and uncomfortable, knowing they are watching you try and solve the problem and ensure you formulate the right response. Had I been given the problems/questions beforehand, or even been given a breakout session to privately digest and solve, I am confident I would've succeeded in this portion. However, I really believe my nerves got to me and I was assessed and evaluated based off of that and not my true capabilities, which I even shared several times.
As stated prior, the rest of the interviews were great as it was more of a standard interview process and I felt confident in my responses and my communication skills. I received an email a few days later from the hiring manager asking if we could connect over the phone - which I immediately knew was for a rejection call. I had that call today, and when I asked for some feedback regarding what went wrong or what was lacking, so that I knew where to improve when applying to future recruiting roles, she said they needed someone with better operational and coordination skills, AKA the live coordination assessment interview, which was the most awful and painful interview I've ever encountered. It's really unfortunate that I truly feel like if that portion was designed differently, I could have preformed more effectively and thus, been assessed better. I have a Bachelor's degree in Communication and a Master's degree in Human Resource Management with years of coordination and operational experience, so that felt like a huge slap in the face given the interview design felt poorly designed. When I asked for advice, I was also told "I would consider if recruiting is the career pivot you really want to make", which felt a little condescending and rude. I was told that the door is "always open" at Better Up for other roles. I wanted to get off the phone so quickly that I didn't bother sharing too much of what I'm writing here, but I will never be applying to a single job here again.
One more thing to note: For a company that values work/life balance, culture, and human first before employee, seeing the hiring manager email me at 1am and 3am was a red flag, and is maybe a blessing in disguise as I value work/life balance and wouldn't want to work for a company that puts in those types of hours in any form.
