The interview process moved fairly quickly. Overall it took about 2 weeks from start to finish. There were four calls/interviews total. First a phone screen with a recruiter, then a quick video call with the hiring manager, then a lengthy day of 5 half-hour interviews followed by a project presentation to a larger group, and then finally a quick call with the recruiter to wrap up.
Overall, I was not impressed with the way this interview process was handled. There was a severe lack of communication and organization on the part of the recruiting team. They scheduled me for the final round (the full day of interviews + project presentation) without my consent or knowledge. I never received a confirmation email from anyone. The recruiter in charge of this effort actually sent multiple confusing messages to me on that day: 1) asking if I had received the confirmation email, and 2) if I could do the interviews that day anyway. I was stunned.
We properly scheduled the final round for a couple days later. On the day of, I got multiple interviewers apologizing for the mix-up, which was nice, but to be honest, it just added to my stress. The whole issue made me feel like I did not belong, so I was trying to shake that feeling and work against that for the entire day.
The final round felt like I was interviewing for an Exec Director position, not a mid to senior level one. Totally overkill and unnecessary to have me spend hours offline working on a project, then 5 half hour interviews and a lengthy presentation. After the presentation, not a single person in the audience of 8 had a single substantive question for me. I was supposed to leave a half hour for Q&A, which I did, but was disappointed to learn that no one wanted to participate. At the end of this insane day, I left feeling annoyed, frustrated, and unsatisfied.
I heard from the recruiter a day later. They sent a cryptic email about when I would be available to talk about “potential next steps” and “feedback”. The only feedback they had for me – from the team – was that they wanted someone with experience in healthcare tech. This was not a requirement in the job listing, but that was not the part I was mad about. It’s completely fair on their part to want someone with tech experience. But, for that to be the only bit of feedback after a whole day of stressful interviews, and a project presentation that felt like a waste of their time – not to mention the hours I spent leading up to that day working on it – it was totally crushing. If they wanted someone with healthcare tech experience, all they had to do was look at my resume for ten seconds to see that I had none.
Also, the “potential next steps” part was only about whether or not I wanted to receive job listings that come up at Athena in the future.
In any typical process, candidates anxiously await each step of the process; with each successive round, the team’s interest in you grows. It feels good to be moved on to the next round. In this case it felt terrible to learn at the end of an exhausting process that the team was never truly interested and all my effort was spent in vain.
Safe to say that after this experience, I will not apply for a position at Athena again, nor will I recommend anyone work there. Job candidates are human beings. Treat us as such.