I applied online and heard back a few days later. The recruiter who called me was probably legitimately the most robotic recruiter I've ever had. I honestly thought when I picked up it was like a prerecorded voicemail machine message. She talked like this the whole time and it was also very obvious she was reading off of a script. She never changed her voice except for once when she forgot what she was saying and “broke character” for a moment. This isn’t the worst thing obviously, but it made it very difficult to talk to and connect with the recruiter and was distracting. It also seemed like she either was not listening to me or had no idea what I was talking about, which added to the weirdness of it and distance.
She would ask the same question a couple times, but not in a tactical way where sometimes if a recruiter doesn’t get an answer they need, they try reasking in a different way. It was like she didn’t know what she was saying or asking or did not know what the role was about. I would explain something and she would ask a follow up question asking about what I just explained. For example, she asked to talk about some analysis I’ve done. I walked through the process of something I did, starting with why I decided on the analysis, what I actually did, and then explained how I explained everything to the project manager after in a simplified way that they would understand, and the actionable steps that came from that. Her follow up question was “Okay. So how would you explain that to someone that does not know data?” ….to which I said that the project manager does not know data and I explained again how I had explained my work. This was just one example, but there were a lot of times I was literally face palming on the phone and it just took so much extra effort and energy to work with since I would be repeating things I had already said and had given thorough answers to.
There was a lot of this disconnect where again, it felt like she was just reading the script she had, instead of listening to what I was saying or realizing that what I said already answered the questions she had. There was no feedback, reaction, or interaction either after every question, just onto the next one, so it was kind of awkward and felt like I was talking to a wall.
At the end, she explained that next steps would be a call with the hiring manager. Then after that would be an assessment, which would be a cognitive test where you have 15 minutes for 50 questions, about 20 seconds each per question. Then after that would be meet with the hiring manager again and then do a 45 minute Google Hangout to do some pair programming with someone. Then after that would be a take home test that I’d have a week to complete, which I would then present on Zoom. Then after that would be some 1 on 1 interviews.
I was pretty not interested already after the phone screen, as well as hearing that process. I had said lightheartedly “Wow, that’s a lot!” and she broke character again and said frustratingly “Well it’s only 4 steps.” Which, I’m not sure if Numerator knows how other companies function, but for a non-leadership role, this seems extremely excessive, and other places’ “only 4 steps” do not look like this. If I was interviewing for something like VP, I get this process a bit more. But for just a senior analyst role, this seems like an inappropriate amount of steps that is going to be a waste of my time, and their time and resources. Especially those cognitive tests, if you do any research into them and don’t just read the marketing they try and sell to companies about their “benefits”, are complete BS and not relevant to how someone actually performs at a company, just if they’re good test taker. I feel like they could do the cognitive test OR the pair programming OR the take home test+presentation, not all 3. Even 2 of those I would be fine with and would be appropriate, but not 3.
In the end, I was ghosted and never heard back from Numerator, but that’s okay, because I am very uninterested after that experience, and their unrealistic process they want people to jump through hoops for for non-leadership roles. Maybe they should have had a more thorough process for hiring their recruiters, especially if they need 3 various tests, on top of all the other interviews, to figure out if a candidate is good or not.