The process began with a Craigslist ad that didn't call out the company's name but rather a category - basically, a blind ad. Fast forward THIRTY DAYS later, a generic response saying they were interested with an outline of the process to come.
The outlined mentioned how many wonderful applicants had applied and that the next steps included an initial interview with the owner followed by another round, then a decision. Fair enough.
The initial interview was more of a procedural "cattle call." I arrived at "my" interview time, only to find 3 others with that same interview time. This was going to be repeated 3 more times that week which hinted to me that not a lot of screening happened. We were instructed to fill out an application in a small foyer to the office, toe to toe with other candidates. We were provided with a clipboard and not enough area for us all to sit.
After some time, the owner came in to introduce herself to all of us, followed by "Which one of you were here first?" That candidate got a brief face to face chat of around 10 minutes. To their credit, Flourish did say it was an initial meeting in the process outline. My experience suggests it was one of two filters to come.
After 20 minutes of manually filling out and application and a 10 minute private meeting, we were invited to take a third party "Personality Test" of around 200 questions. Haven't been presented with one of those since, I dunno, the 80-90s. Classic Likert Strongly Agree/Agree/Neutral/Disagree/Strongly Disagree faire. If you know how to take one of these tests, you won't be challenged...pretty transparent. During that test time, I was asked to change rooms to return to the crowded foyer.
After wrapping up the test, we were directed to give it to the receptionist. When asked what the next steps were and when we might be contacted, she didn't know and didn't offer to find out. I left thinking I'd hear back soon, even without any expectation-setting.
After a followup email that day, I called once each week inquiring if the job had been filled, whether I was still a candidate, etc. and got the standard "I'll take your number and leave with our Director." On one call, they had no idea who I was and asked if i had filled out an application yet.
My gripe isn't that I wasn't (apparently) selected. It's a hirer's market! What gripes me is that after repeated inquiries - and this is a small, local organization - I never received the courtesy of a "thanks, but no thanks" email nor a call or anything. I was chasing them after investing my time for a short, non-informative interview and a longer "surprise" personality test. Bad form.
For a company claiming to be SO customer-centric, I was struck by how amateurish this process unfolded. I don't think they were malicious, just incompetent and under skilled hiring sales folks.
