Vocus PRWeb Editor Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Nov 2011 in Beltsville, MD (took 2+ weeks)

I reached out to the recruitment team via Twitter and the process went smoothly. I had a brief phone interview that was a basic screening for "we hope this guy doesn't come interview here with a puppet." I was then invited to Vocus' headquarters which is very nice--albeit slightly tacky. I feel like I would absolutely love this place within the first few months, but would start to grow tired of the "urban modernism" decor. The HR team is very friendly--offered water, coffee--pretty standard stuff. In-person interview with the managing editor went quite well and we moved on from there. Just as a note, if you're new to the team you will work a late night shift--and I would imagine that differential pay would not be included in your compensation.

I was invited back for an "editing test" that consisted of rewriting a press release. Same hospitality from HR. They won't print out the editing test for you to edit on paper--so you're pretty much forced to edit from a single Word document--which I felt was extraordinarily unprofessional and put up some warning signs. Anyone who is an editor of somewhat decent competency knows that printing out and editing on paper is one of the soundest methods for editing, but whatever. I'm not sure Vocus is looking for quality over quantity. I was switched out of a conference room due to the "executives" needing it. Absolutely fine. Was rushed away to a different room. The HR person didn't know the password for the laptop--and had to fetch it from the managing editor--twice, which threw me for a loop. Again, semi-unprofessional but I overlooked it. Editing test went well, although the whole thing felt amateurish (some of the things on the sample document were incorrect to begin with). Was told a decision would be made Friday--heard nothing back.

Not for anything, but since Vocus is essentially a glorified PR firm (or something like that--they seem to have their business all over the place) you'd think they'd know to treat candidates well so they post a positive review about their experience on a site like Glassdoor. I had to call and email several times before I got a rejection letter. Not miffed about the rejection--but rather the process. This is nothing exclusive to Vocus but an innate flaw with any HR team.

Overall, I'm still not sure what in the world this company exactly does. From my understanding, it takes the "grunt work" out of building relationships with journalists--which as a journalist, is a complete cop-out in my opinion. For those looking to write, this is NOT the position for you. Judging by the current staff, they are looking for customer service reps who they can then train--and then transition into a Sales Executive role down the line. Try not to be fooled by the amenities, although they are very alluring. PRNewswire is obviously the better service here. I've heard horror stories about working on the sales team, which you'll also read about on here.