Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about your interview experience. We understand that the interview process can be a vulnerable and emotional experience, especially when expectations and outcomes don’t align. Our process helps to ensure we find a match for both the candidate and the company – and whenever it doesn’t work out to be that way, it’s always a disappointment but an important part of finding the right fit. We’d like to address some points raised in your review to provide additional context and clarity: Late Start to the Interview: I apologize for being late to our Zoom interview. While I was a few minutes late, I sent an email within three minutes of the scheduled start time to inform you I was running behind. I regret any inconvenience caused and will continue striving for punctuality in all interactions. Involvement of the Founder: As a small company, I (Anna), is involved in every hiring decision. This ensures we find candidates who align with our company values and culture. While this may differ from larger organizations, it reflects our commitment to maintaining a high-quality team and managing the significant time investment required for recruiting from team members. Efficient Interview Process: We aim to keep our interview process brief and direct, particularly when compared to the lengthy, multi-step processes many candidates face in the industry. We hope this approach helps respect candidates’ time while allowing us to make thoughtful hiring decisions. Preliminary Written Interview Step: You noted that no questions were asked during the interview, but it’s important to point out that prior to meeting with Anna, you completed a detailed written interview step. This step included answering a series of questions about your skills, experience, and alignment with the role, which provided us with key insights before proceeding further. Paid Interview Trial and Expectations: Your participation in a one-day paid interview trial was clearly communicated as part of the interview process, in which you agreed to participate in during the interview on Zoom. A detailed Slack message, recapping everything that was discussed, was sent to you at 4:45 PM the day before your trial day, which included: 1. Information about everyone in the Slack channel with you, including their job titles and roles in your paid interview trial - as well as who to ask for help. 2. Clear instructions on which training topics to take versus skip. 3. Confirmation that the interview paid trial would be one day only and an integral part of the interview process as well as exactly which tasks you would complete, and in which order - to minimize/remove any uncertainty. 4. During the trial, you responded in the Slack channel to confirm you were taking the appropriate training topics, which does not align with your expressed uncertainty in this review. The paid interview trial was designed to evaluate your skills in a real-world context and to provide you with insight into the role. Interviews on zoom are great and essential, but interviews don't really help showcase talent and creative alignment, do they? While this was a paid opportunity, the work you submitted was not usable. Furthermore, your admission in this review that you “purposely bombed the exercises” seems unprofessional. The quality of your work (and lack of following various other directions) contributed to our decision not to proceed. Zoom Meeting Issues: Regarding your follow-up meeting, during your paid interview trial, you were asked to schedule this meeting before beginning the paid trial work. This step ensures we have time on the calendar to review how the trial day went and allows us to provide timely feedback and a response regarding any next steps. Referring to this as being “summoned” does not accurately reflect the collaborative and proactive nature of this request. When you self-booked the meeting, you entered a misspelled email address, which is why you did not receive the confirmation email. This issue was flagged in the Slack channel, where I shared the correct link with you. After you informed the link wasn't working for you, I tested the link with another team member who successfully joined the meeting using the same link. Lack of Training: The self-guided exercises assigned during the paid interview trial reflect the core responsibilities of the role and are intended to evaluate a candidate’s expertise. This is not a formal training process, as the paid interview trial is still part of the interview phase. The Slack message provided clear context about the process and expectations, which you acknowledged during the trial day. We regret that there was such a significant disconnect between your expectations and our process. We hope this response provides clarity and helps to resolve some of the misunderstandings about our process. It also highlights opportunities for us to provide more clarity for future candidates. Thank you for your time! I wish you the best in your next chapter, Amanda.