TL;DR version
- Long, slow process, very modest communication
- The video interview was unstructured and all over the place
- The trial week was unorganised, team unwelcoming, Slack channel a complete graveyard
- In my case, I was rated on skills which were not tested during the process
- No feedback on your performance, BS reason explaining their decision
+ First quiz is sweet and short and you get a free T-shirt for passing it
+ Trial week is paid
In general: I wouldn't apply again + I’m not an avid Toggl user anymore.
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Sept 2017, I applied for “User Acquisition Manager” position. Job description was not very specific, but I thought I was a good fit.
First step was a quiz - 10 questions to answer within a limited time. It wasn’t difficult, 85% correct answers to get to the next stage.
Next stage, assignment - write a review of a book.
I got an invitation for a video call with the team.
At this point, it started to be weird and uncomfortable. Female barely talked to me, she asked maybe one question. Team lead asked most of the questions tho they weren’t really focused on anything. As I understood they “don’t believe in CVs” so I had to keep bringing my experience but my feeling was that they weren’t that interested. Very general 1-hour long chat.
I was asked to join a week-long trial. I was supposed to receive an agreement to review. Didn’t happen. It was shared on Monday morning. I understood that Toggl doesn’t have a recruitment specialist - previous automatic replies were from a woman signing as “HR Manager” but then the same person emailed me and the footer this time said “Office Manager”.
I joined Slack but said I would like to review the agreement before doing any work. Trial week was remote. I was a single-channel guest on Slack. That was absolutely the worst Slack channel I've ever seen - I was talking to myself. I tried to keep the conversation going, understand team’s current projects, struggles, maybe bounce some ideas - nope, total graveyard.
The assignment was to mock up a landing page which would be selling a paid subscription of Toggle to a specific target. Additionally, I was supposed to create two versions of Adwords, choose one article from a blog and set up a Facebook ad for it.
Everything looked discouraging from the very start - first of all, the team has no resources when it comes to design. No brand book, no style guide, not any kind of a document which would indicate how to keep brand’s style consistent. Lack of those added hours of investigating different landing pages and inspecting page elements.
Second of all, after reviewing a description of a persona, I got an approving answer but during the following days, I was sent different messages pointing out “new facts” about the target group.
I prepared a FB ad. During this task, I discovered that few blog posts’ URLs have been redirected incorrectly, which influences SEO, I posted a message explaining what’s wrong and how to fix it, tagging the SEO girl. The only response I got was a Slack reaction.
Next day, I found out that my access to FB account was revoked. Got worried and stressed, asked for an explanation - the answer hasn’t arrived for hours, when it finally did, it was just “fixed now”.
Trail week was ending, I did initial keyword research and wrote two copies for Adwords. I have rather vast experience with PPC, been managing multiple accounts for years. SEM and SEO are my favourite areas of expertise. Submitted my ads, got an answer that it looks ok.
The final step was giving feedback about the trial week. I mentioned what I liked and disliked, complained about a mishap with FB, lack of clarity when giving feedback to my work. Team lead said thanks. No feedback for me.
I was waiting 2-3 weeks for the answer. I received a very short email which informed me that they decided to hire somebody else with bigger knowledge of Adwords.
I was absolutely furious for the way I was treated. It wasn’t about the fact that I didn’t get the offer - this happens - but using Adwords as an excuse was unacceptable. Nowhere during the 5-weeks long process was I asked in detail about my Adwords skills. Not during the test, written assignment, video interview (and I mentioned on my own that I have experience in Adwords) and especially not during the trial week - initial keyword research and two ads copies are not even touching the surface of Adwords.
I asked to reconsider their decision, as my Adwords skills were not tested at all. I requested an honest feedback which could help me in the future. Unfortunately, it was too much to expect from this team, I only got an email which said they already hired another person.