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      Technical Writer Interview

      10 Feb 2021
      Anonymous interview candidate
      Burlingame, CA
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. I interviewed at Acumen (Burlingame, CA) in Mar 2020

      Interview

      They compensated me for my travel, which was generous and polite. I had to take an exam about grammar and research. Then I remained in one room all day while different department members spent 30 minutes each asking me the same exact typical interview questions all day, one at a time. It was exhausting and redundant. One interviewer even said out loud that he didn't understand why he was interviewing me, which was awkward. I think the weirdest part was that my interview and test with them was scheduled from 10am-3pm. Around I think 12:30 or 1pm, the HR rep told me I wasn't going to get a lunch break. She told me I could remain in the interview room by myself and either have a protein bar OR a bag of chips. I thought it was ridiculous. I would have liked to have been informed that I was responsible for my own lunch ahead of time so I could've pack a sandwich. I ended up walking to the cafe on the first floor and buying myself a proper lunch, but HR was bizarre about it. She told me several times to make sure I wasn't late for the next interview and then awkwardly told me that if I had been traveling from further away, an employee would've taken me out to lunch, but since I was close by, they wouldn't pay for my lunch. It was just....bizarre and borderline rude. No matter where you travel from to attend an interview with a company, lunch is lunch. Everyone deserves to eat more than a bag of chips for lunch. And I felt it was a bit dishonest and just unprofessional that the company didn't tell me ahead of time that I had to figure out my own lunch. I wanted the job, but after the interview I realized the company wasn't very organized and I didn't understand the logic behind the interview. The whole thing was a red flag.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Questions about semicolons Questions about the Oxford comma Create a sample guide about performing research Identify a grammatically incorrect sentence Write instructions for finding a "quality article online" in a technical writing format A rewrite of a couple confusing paragraphs with advanced verbiage about a technical process Define "original work"
      Answer question
      avatar
      Acumen response
      5y
      Thank you for sharing your feedback, we're sorry to hear you had a less than positive interview experience and for any confusion. We want to be respectful of candidates' and employees' time and make sure candidates have a 30-minute window during the interview to take a break. We strive to make sure candidate's have a clear expectation of the interview and go over their schedule in detail at the start of the interview.

      Other Technical Writer interview reviews for Acumen

      Technical Writer Interview

      1 Apr 2020
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. I interviewed at Acumen

      Interview

      Acumen tries to cut corners by getting rid of the initial HR phone screen. The process for me was 1) fill out an abnormally long application, with multiple short answer questions; 2) submit writing samples; and 3) have a phone call with three members of the team. The phone call was wildly unpleasant. The interviewers were terse (one was openly hostile), asking a series of predetermined questions with little reaction to my answers. It was also clear they had not read my writing samples beforehand. Without the HR call, I felt completely unprepared, with a shaky understanding of the actual day-to-day of the job (the job description was typically vague) or the salary. I left the phone interview unsure if I even wanted to continue with next steps (an in-person interview/writing test). The feeling must have been mutual because I received a standard email rejection a few days later.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      What is the easiest thing about writing?
      Answer question
      avatar
      Acumen response
      6y
      Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about your recent interview experience. We’re sorry to learn that your experience wasn’t pleasant, and we’ll certainly factor your feedback into our ongoing efforts to improve our interview process.

      Technical Writer Interview

      26 Feb 2019
      Anonymous interview candidate
      No offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. I interviewed at Acumen in Feb 2019

      Interview

      I both disagree and agree with the content in the previous reviews. It was a somewhat lengthy process, but then again I live on the other side of the country. The steps I had included: phone interview, in-person interview, second-phone interview, and then they let me know their decision a few days after that. They reimbursed me to fly out, which I thought was pretty generous. The in person interview was indeed lengthy, I think about 5 hours, but it did not feel like that long because I interviewed with several different people. The writing portion of the test was on a laptop. It was timed, but I had more than enough time to address the questions in a manner that I was satisfied with. I wouldn't say that the test was excruciatingly difficult. Everyone was very nice, but I can see what the previous review meant by it seeming a bit disorganized. It felt like I was being interviewed independently by each person, rather than meeting with a series of people from one organization. It almost seemed that a couple of the people who interviewed me were more nervous than I was, or like they were unfamiliar with interviewing people. To be fair, though, each person was from a different department, so I think their day-to-day work might not typically involve interviewing people. They took me to lunch at a nice restaurant, which again, I thought was pretty generous. After a few weeks they called back for a short follow-up phone interview in which they asked me a few questions. A few days later, I was informed of their decision.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      They asked fairly typical questions I would say (i.e. goals, strengths, etc.)
      Answer question
      avatar
      Acumen response
      7y
      Thanks for leaving us a detailed review of your experience going through our interview process. We appreciate your feedback!

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