Overall, this has by far been one of the most disorganized, unprofessional hiring and interview processes I've ever participated in. I don't typically post my interview experiences on Glassdoor but this entire experience left such a bad taste in my mouth I thought I should share it to alert other prospective candidates that are considering employment with the FWSO.
3 interviews, the first is over the phone with the VP of Marketing and VP of Development. I applied for the position at 8pm in the evening and within 30 minutes I was contacted for a phone interview. A few days after the phone interview, I was called in for an in-person interview with the same individuals, plus the CEO of the FWSO. One off-putting question I was asked by the CEO when he reviewed my resume was "How did a young person like you convince your current employer to let you be an Assistant Director?" I felt like that question was age-discriminatory and condescending, and most HR departments worth their salt would probably frown upon that interview question, but I played ball anyway. I closed the in-person interview with the question, "Do you have any concerns about my skills or qualifications as they pertain to this position?" No concerns, the panel said they were impressed with what I had to offer.
A few days later, I got asked to do a final in-person interview with one of the FWSO's board members. The day before this interview, the executive admin emailed me to let me know the interview was canceled and would be rescheduled. Then a few hours later I was emailed that the interview was back on as planned. It was kind of frustrating, but things happen and you do what you have to do in order to get the job, right?
I head into the interview with the board member; the VP of Development and the COO is also there. The VP of Development seems to be guiding the interview and saying things like, "In our previous interview, I was really impressed about your thoughts on [insert topic], can you expand on that?" At the end of the interview, I once again asked "Do you have any final concerns about my skills or qualifications as they pertain to this position? If so, I'd like the opportunity to address them now." Once again, no concerns from the panel. Following this, the board member exclaimed "I don't have a problem with this one, you can hire them if you want!"
So I'm leaving the interview, thinking I got the job. Everything seemed really positive despite how unorganized the actual interviewing process was. The board member even gave their blessing to the hiring manager in front of me. A week goes by, I didn't hear back. With that being said, it was Thanksgiving week, people are out of the office, no big, right? I wait a few more weeks. It's been nearly a month since I interviewed, so I send an email asking on the status of the position. I get an email back telling me that while my "qualifications and skills impressed" the team, they felt that those skills were not the "right fit" for the position. Frustrating, considering my years of relevant experience lined up perfectly with this opportunity and I attempted to address any concerns they might have had during the interview process. Had I not emailed them asking for an update, I doubt I would have heard back at all. At the time of this writing, the position has still not been filled.
Overall, this experience was incredibly disorganized and unprofessional. It's one thing to not get the job, but to be given so much false hope during the interview process by most of the people making a hiring decision is incredibly cruel. Hopefully the FWSO can get their HR department built up so that they can fix their hiring process and future candidates will have a better experience than I did.
