The overall interview process felt poorly structured and lacking in clarity from the outset. It was never clearly defined what the role itself was responsible for internally, or what specific skill set the team was ultimately looking for. Throughout the process, it often felt as though the position was still being figured out internally rather than being a clearly established role. After the first interview, communication became very slow, with nearly three weeks passing before I heard anything further. I was then invited to the next stage, where I met two members of the team I would potentially be working with. That interview itself was professional and fairly standard. The next stage involved a case study presentation. The brief explicitly stated that the focus would be on strategic and critical thinking rather than polished visual execution, and specifically noted not to spend too much time refining the design itself. The case study focused heavily on internal processes, stakeholder management and systems thinking, which aligned well with my background. I developed a concept and included a simple visual execution to help communicate the idea clearly, in line with the instructions provided. I was asked to submit the work 24 hours before the interview so the panel could prepare discussion points. However, shortly afterwards I received feedback via the recruiter that the interviewers did not want to proceed unless I returned with the design fully realised and brought to a much higher level of visual finish. This directly contradicted the original brief and shifted the expectation from strategic thinking to speculative unpaid design production. As someone with 15 years of industry experience, I found this approach disappointing and unprofessional. I responded respectfully, explaining that while I was happy to discuss and present the thinking behind the work, and demonstrate my capabilities through my portfolio and experience, I would not be committing additional unpaid time to produce a fully finished campaign execution. Following that response, communication stopped entirely and I received no further reply or closure from the company. Considering the length of the process and the amount of time already invested, I found the lack of follow up particularly discourteous. Overall, this was one of the weaker interview experiences I have had professionally, largely due to inconsistent expectations, unclear direction and poor communication throughout the process.