I got to the final round for this role but was rejected, so I wanted to give my honest take on the process. Overall, it was pretty good until the last interview. I don't think they liked my presentation when they read over my preread, so they came at me pretty hot with lots of questions from the start. The final challenge is tough - they give you a 40-minute presentation based on a briefing. You'll have about 1.5 weeks to do this at home.
During the interview, you will present to them, but keep in mind they will ask you questions throughout the presentation, and you'll likely run out of time for the full 40 minutes, therefore, I would suggest making it a little shorter to make space for the extra questions. This really threw me off as I wasn't expecting that, but I've never had a proper interview before, so maybe it's common practice.
I felt like they asked a few "gotcha" questions - questions without a perfect/right answer. Maybe I'm wrong, and this displays my lack of aptitude for the position (which is fair), but I wasn't sure how to respond to them, so just be aware of that.
The other thing that bummed me out was how the hiring manager, Amy, acted. She looked incredibly bored during the whole hour. She talked really slowly, like she was trying to get the question through my head. She also kept attempting to make eye contact with the other woman when I answered certain questions. This made me feel like I had said something stupid or had misunderstood the question, which made it very difficult to respond. It was bad practice from her, and if she cared to hear feedback, I would say - Remember that the person you're interviewing will be nervous and will feed off your body language, so try to hide it a little better if you don't agree with what they're saying.
The few times she said something positive, it was in a backhanded sort of way, "You got there in the end", that type of thing. Again, fair enough, I'm not fit for the role, and her feedback was valid, but her body language was incredibly disheartening.
Overall, when I walked out, I knew with 95% certainty that I hadn't landed the role. That's how bad the vibes were by the end. And frankly, I'm not heartbroken; based on what I saw, I think I would struggle to fit in there. It's a shame; I was looking forward to a new challenge, but I don't think I was the right fit for them, and vice versa.
