After applying, I received a phone call from their office manager who asked me my salary requirements, as well as my availability for a standard phone interview with the person in charge of their communications teams. We scheduled that next phone interview during that initial conversation.
I had the phone interview with a woman sometime later the next week, it was pretty standard. She asked that I email over some writing samples, so I did. Afterwards, the office manager called me back to say I did well enough on the phone interview to come in for an in-person interview. Scheduling that interview was tough. It took longer than usual to get a confirmed date to come in.
The in-person interview process was bizarre. I met with three people, all separately. Including the woman whom I had already spoken with over the phone. Plus two other men. The woman was pretty short when I asked her basic but relevant questions pertaining to the position. When I asked how their initiation/training process went, she replied with, "There is no training. I'd expect you to know what you're doing on day one." Which I thought was really strange. I've never heard of any position where there wasn't some sort of initial training/orientation period to start out with.
Next, one of the men I interviewed with asked how I dealt with "different personalities" in the office place. Pretty standard question, but he felt it necessary to mention that there was a current employee who was "annoying and nobody liked" and asked how I'd "deal" with that type of person. I thought this was extremely unprofessional. The other man I met with emphasized the casual environment of the office, demonstrating how they could wear jeans. He described all this while using a small level of profanity, not like I minded. I just assumed this was to show how casual he was.
I received a phone call a week or two later from the office manager. He said I didn't get the job. He also provided some additional and unnecessary feedback. I've been turned down from jobs before and I was never given, nor needed, an explanation as to why. One of the men said I seemed "too informal" while the woman said my writing skills were "very weak." When I asked why she even bothered to have me come in for an in-person interview, he replied with, "well, she's pretty new at this interviewing process."
I totally dodged a bullet. I've never received such a negative, toxic impression from a workplace like I did from SevOne in Boston.