I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Elsevier (Philadelphia, PA) in Sept 2018
Interview
Worst professional interviewing experience in 30 years. The entire process was stunningly shabby and unprofessional.
First, I was left waiting for over 40 minutes in the lobby before HR Rep came to get me saying he was not notified I had arrived. A receptionist had claimed she phoned him upon my arrival 10 minutes before the interview and confirmed he would be right down. He then proceeded to take me to the conference room, asked the person in the room to leave, attempted to get the Skype working then realized it was the wrong room. Once finally in the correct room, the Skype was not working correctly. I was not able to see 1 of the 2 interviewers and had no idea if they could see me. Then while the 1 I could see was attempting to show me a demo, I was unable to see 90% of the screen which they could not resolve. The face to face interview that followed with 2 executives was fine. They mentioned to me to reach out to any of the interviewers on LinkedIn with any questions. I sent the Director a message and not surprisingly, never received any response. The most disappoint part is that after several phone interviews, conversations with multiple HR reps and 4 additional Skype/In person interviews where I was 1 of 3 finalists, I was NEVER contacted with any feedback.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They gave me some vague current business problem and asked me how I would design a solution. I asked clarifying questions and the communication via Skype was completely ineffective and I was unable to fully understand the point of the question.
Thank you for your review. We apologize for not getting back to you. This is not the experience that we want our candidates to have. We appreciate the time spent during the recruiting process. We continue to work on our process to provide better experiences to our candidates.
Other Program Manager interview reviews for Elsevier
I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Elsevier (Philadelphia, PA)
Interview
Was contacted within a couple weeks after applying to online job listing, did an HR phone screen interview and was invited to come to in person interviews with the potential future team members. All seemed to go well and communication was adequate but after the in-person interviews they stopped communicating at all. I politely followed up once and with no response stopped doing so. At that stage of the interview process and at this stage in my career I just found the "ghosting" approach highly unprofessional. Have the professional courtesy to follow up even if the fit isn't right - seasoned professionals would rather hear no than nothing.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
General behavioral interview questions about how I have handled certain situations: challenging stakeholders, background in project management and how I would apply it to specific situations they are facing.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Elsevier (Philadelphia, PA) in Jul 2017
Interview
Straightforward behavioral interview questions about project management experience and qualifications to improve process. Began with HR phone screen and followed with invitation to meet with 3 people who would be part of the team of supervisors and colleagues.
