This was the most difficult and taxing interview of my career. I was quoted 1.5 hours for the interview process, and the time was more than double that. The interview did not start on time although I was punctual. I was given a group of standard skills tests and interviewed by four different people. Between interviews, I was left alone without explanation, up to 20 minutes at times. I truly began to wonder if this was an intentional mind game, which did not seem in keeping with the type of company or its mission. As I became increasingly hungry and weary, I even wondered if the company might be a front for something else! I am not exaggerating when I say I checked for cameras in the interview rooms.
After interviewing with the fourth and final person (who would be the supervisor of the person hired), I thought the interview had reached a merciful conclusion. But I was given a complicated onsite editing test. The test had unbelievable tiny, single-spaced, multicolored text, and the convoluted directions were given to me rapid-fire. I asked if I could take the test at home and then return it and was refused. The interviewer insinuated that I might do something dishonest.
I can be very forgiving when someone who is not an editor/proofreader gives me a document with tight spacing and tiny text. But to receive this from someone who is “part of the tribe,” so to speak, was staggering. I had to make hard-copy editing marks on text that was roughly the size of the fine print on a credit-card offer. When I expressed concern about the spacing and type size, the interviewer seemed puzzled and unsympathetic. Looking back, I wish I ended the interview there.
One last puzzling thing was that the fourth interviewer brought up, in passing, the subject of her children. I had heard this was a tactic some interviewers use to get women to talk about their own children, should they have any. I don’t, but still did not take the bait and revealed no personal information.
