I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Consumer Reports (Yonkers, NY) in Aug 2016
Interview
After meeting for three hours with HR and members of the editorial staff, the HR person told me she'd get back to me the following Wednesday, which she did, to tell me they chose another candidate. This might have been because they picked up on the fact that halfway through the interview I knew the place wasn't for me. Everyone was perfectly friendly and intelligent but the impression I got from them, coupled with my reading of the magazine, is of a once great but stodgy brand that missed the on ramp to the digital superhighway and is struggling to recapture its relevance....not easy to do when they compete with so many free review websites and specialty magazines. Nobody I spoke with seemed to have a clear idea how of this could be done. Consumer Reports' mission as an unbiased consumer advocate is an admirable one, but the digital age seems to have left them adrift. Astonishingly, one of the interviewers explained the negative Glassdoor reviews (he brought up Glassdoor - I didn't) as a reaction to change by people who have been doing things a certain way for too long. I think there's more to the story than that. When I asked him how CR planned to make up for declining print revenues, he said CR hopes consumers will buy into its mission with charitable donations, like they do with NPR and PBS. Passing the hat around doesn't sound like a viable business model to me, so I was happy to give CR a miss.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about an article you worked on that made you proud.
I interviewed with a recruiter who told me that my information would be passed along to the hiring team. Received no follow-up. Emailed asking for an update with no response - ghosted. Very disappointing.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Consumer Reports (Yonkers, NY) in May 2016
Interview
Awful. Worst "interview" experience I've ever had - if you could call it that. As they say, "where there's smoke, there's fire" -- there's a reason for the negative reviews on this site.
HR and the team weren't on the same page. I was called in with some level of urgency to interview for what I was told was an open position (though was never given a job description -- a major red flag, in retrospect). Even once I was there, HR described this "open" position (in fact, said there were two!) but told me that the description hadn't been written up yet. Then I met with the team in question and learned there was in fact NO open position and that they didn't know when/if there would be one -- it hinged upon whether some employees would accept a buyout offer.
I left completely bewildered -- why was I called up with some urgency to come to the office to interview for a position that wasn't open? Well, I guess I'll never know. Despite 2 emails to HR, I never heard back about it.
It was a complete waste of my time, not to mention my money, to go to the office for a position that didn't exist. I generally try to give organizations the benefit of the doubt, but the negative reviews on this site (which I broached with the people I met with that day) are spot-on in my experience. It's disorganized and lacking a coherent vision for the future direction of the company. What's more, I don't appreciate when companies act with such blatant disregard for the time of prospective employees -- to me, that's indicative of how they'll treat you once hired.
If you're offered an opportunity to come in for an interview, make sure it's for an actual position and be aware of the time / money it will take to get there (about $40 roundtrip from the city).
