I had a wonderful experience with my recruiter throughout the interview process. She was professional, genuine, and really seemed to care about the candidate experience. I especially appreciated her transparency and responsiveness. However, the actual onsite where I met with members of the content team was disappointing. While I liked the format of doing activities/skills exercises with interviewers (I got a glimpse of what day-to-day work would be like), the tone of the interviews seemed off. My interviewers ranged from disinterested (e.g. interrupting my answers) to hostile (e.g. “I know the team at your previous company was laid off. Did you only take your current job because you needed a job?”). Many questions were repetitive, and there was a lot of focus around working with a team and culture fit, rather than qualifications to do the job itself. There was a lot of rigidity around process and a general lack of joy that I found strange for an edtech company. Personally, Study didn’t feel like a place that valued diversity of backgrounds or opinions.

The interview process involved three phases, including a(n) 1) in-depth HR interview 2) practical skills department interview 3) in-person interview (did not reach this point) In the first phase, HR provided information on the company's past and present, and really tried to give me an idea of what the team does. She also asked my salary requirements/requests. The second phase required applicants to demonstrate writing and communication skills through a couple of simple exercises (making suggestions to a contracted writer and providing instructions for how to write lesson descriptions/blurbs). While on the phone, we did a screenshare and I demonstrated how I would go about a task the Content Strategists encounter often (simple research). I actually had a very difficult time hearing the interviewer (was on speaker the entire time) and felt like she was trying to get specific answers out of me (that would help their company in its present state), rather than really learn what I had to offer the company.