HR screening, hiring manager, stakeholders, team members, C level then hiring manager again for a final interview (process as described by the recruiter). Got an email from the recruiter saying can we have a ‘quick chat’ about my experience etc. and when I asked if there was anything to prep was told no, it’s just a brief chat. Get on the call and recruiter asking a long list of competency based questions which had been defined by the hiring manager. The issue was given the seniority of the role, there were some very specific questions & when i described my answer the recruiter didn’t understand a lot of the marketing terms and I had to repeatedly clarify. Recruiter was more focused on typing than listening to me. They also complained about how many people had applied for the position and how there were so many people that they had to screen for this. It came across like they didn’t have time to speak to me and that I was one in a long list of people and a box to be ticked. They then said that there must’ve been some reason why the hiring manager was interested in my application but it was super competitive. They asked me to go over my experience which I did starting with the most recent, I did so and after describing this role for 10 minutes the recruiter told me that it would be easier for them if I started from the oldest experience and worked from there and could I repeat the same. Given the level of the role, you really need someone who understands marketing to make a decision on whether someone is suitable. Perhaps the hiring manager could’ve taken the time to speak with candidates or at least not ask the recruiter to ask specific competency questions that they didn’t understand the response to. There was very little exploration of what I was looking for in a role and it seemed like they were not interested in what my goals were. When I asked questions the recruiter couldn’t answer them but told me I could ask someone else later in the process. This was 7 weeks ago and still no news.

There were significant delays in the recruitment process. I was told that I would receive a response within three days, but I ended up waiting more than two weeks and sending several follow-up emails before finally receiving a reply after 15 days. This is not an acceptable way to treat candidates.