Nothing about my interview process (Philadelphia, PA) was clear or timely. I first received an invitation to schedule a virtual screening (confusingly labeled a "video interview," which T&F has separate guidance for on its website) about five weeks ago. But the hiring process was put on hold less than two hours before my first screening was scheduled to take place, apparently due to "unforeseen circumstances"; seven hours later and just after EOD, the process was suddenly back on and I had to schedule an interview for within the next three days. Second, the next interview request was mistakenly scheduled and then confirmed as an in-person interview at the Philadelphia office, and I was only informed that it would be a virtual interview twenty minutes in advance; as I had commuted across town to the office, I quickly requested a reschedule of the virtual interview, which was only finalized more than an hour after the original interview time. The rescheduled virtual screening was also cancelled almost an hour after 9 AM the day of its occurrence (less than an hour and a half before the scheduled interview) with the only possible option for the re-rescheduled screening provided with the single option of "are you by chance available tomorrow afternoon?" The day of the finally rescheduled screening, I received an email headlining "invite to a virtual interview via MS Teams" for what the email body went on to explain was in-person interview with four production staff either that same day or the next. This email about the panel interview linked to a set of scheduling times starting half an hour after the screening was scheduled to end, even though the email and a subsequent schedule confirmation by a hiring manager explained that I would need to arrive at least half an hour before the interview to complete two assessments. My understanding prior to the screening interview was informed by the T&F online resource about video interviews that claims such screening interviews enable T&F to "shortlist candidates to invite for a face-to-face interview," so I found the distinction between the screening and the panel interview was murky and irrelevant. My screening recruiter (who was late to the actual screening) claimed that the preemptive interview scheduling was the hiring manager being "punctual," but did not explain why the screening interview was necessary if there was minimal time between an HR representative screening and a lengthy conversation with four production staff. The following day, I came in for the assessment (a short production editing exercise about spotting inconsistencies and a customer service exercise about pleasing different stakeholders) and completed them on time, but although the schedule for the panel interview noted a fifteen-minute wait between the assessment and the panel interview, I was left to wait for about half an hour instead. Finally, although both the recruiter and hiring manager explained the next steps in the interview process and that I would likely hear back within two weeks of the panel interview three weeks ago, I received no communication about the hiring decision within this time frame. After prompting the recruiter with a reminder email last Thursday, I still only received notice of the decision this Tuesday, two days into the work week. All this was for a position that pays less than living wage in the Philadelphia area (both the recruiter and the hiring manager justified the paltry $46,055 salary as "entry-level to the academic publishing industry, but not an entry-level position").
I was generally granted enough time to talk and given a fair amount of time to ask questions, and one panelist even asked thoughtful follow-up questions. However, without time to discuss any of the questions in smaller groups or one-on-one with those who might have more to say regarding specific aspects of the position, I think it was sometimes difficult to get clear answers about all aspects of the job, such as the internal and external communication policies crumpling at the weight of my recruitment.
While I believe I may have better represented my abilities during my panel interview or been slightly more punctual to the assessment beforehand, given that T&F representatives consistently could have been more punctual and provided little feedback, I am hard-pressed to say why I did not advance to the next round of recruitment. If no one person can succinctly and clearly answer how, why, when, and where each step of the hiring process proceeded, I can't recommend T&F's Philadelphia office as a place to work. I've dodged MLM recruiters less disrespectful than this company.
