I was interviewed by phone for an editor job. The interviewer was a higher-up editor at the newspaper who had worked in a large international bureau for a different publication prior. They were very kind on the phone and not particularly formal. It took me a while to understand the position and the structure of the company, and I wonder if that cost me "points." I'd only worked for much smaller media outlets so I didn't exactly know how their company was structured. The interviewer asked me a lot of questions about the kinds of stories from freelancers I would be interested in soliciting, and what freelancers I knew. I realized within a few minutes what they were really after was my rolodex; if I'd known this in advance I would have been better prepared. I have a bad memory for names (I have to remember hundreds) so I struggled to remember all the names of freelancers whom I'd edited recently. I never heard back after the phone interview although it was pleasant enough.

I had a call with a recruiter who really could care less about what I was saying. Then I had two interviews that went fairly well and I could tell the editors were engaged. I was then asked to take a test, which took me nearly 6 hours to complete. I ended up getting ghosted. Truly shameful experience, especially after all of the work I put into the process.