I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at Elsevier (London, England) in Oct 2017
Interview
Met with two interviewers, one was another Editorial Assistant (found it strange I was being interviewed by a potential peer) and the Operations Manager. Interview lasted about 30-40 minutes and they asked fairly specific situational questions which I'd never come across and found quite difficult. They also specifically asked the names of some of the journals they published. They then gave me a task to write an email response to an angry author who was threatening to withdraw his manuscript. I had five minutes to complete the task before they came back in and took it away whether it was finished or not.
It was thorough. I met with two people who were very organized and asked lots of questions in a short period of time. They were friendly and the interview was less formal than others I had at publishing companies. They answered all my questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Based on what you know about this job, why is it a good fit?
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Elsevier
Interview
Writing test : how to classify the manuscript
Video interview with HR : some easy topics
Video interview with Editor : some assumption situations and how will you cope with them.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Elsevier in Mar 2020
Interview
Completed a 3-hour test, then had a 60 minute phone call with a director, then had a 2-hour video interview. The video interview consisted of separate calls with two different editors, another one again with the director, and then an informal chat with editorial assistant team members.
After spending 6 hours on the process over about 3 weeks I received nothing back. Even after emailing several times.
Thank you for your review.
We apologise for your negative experience with us. Your review is very useful as we are working with the Recruitment teams to ensure that there is adequate communication at every stage of the interview process to ensure candidates are kept informed.
Thank you for your interest in Elsevier and we hope that this experience will not deter you from applying to work with us in the future.