Alley Cat Allies Interview Questions

Sit and wait for a while. Easy questions from current staff, bizarre interview with higher ups. One woman was stoic and...kind of seemed like a lawyer? Very to the point but asked strange questions. Nothing about the actual work. The other woman was all over the place. I got the impression that staff are expected to commit their entire lives to the job.

When I read the other reviews about Alley Cat Allies I thought to myself this cannot be true. So, I applied and was called in. Had a great and informative interview with the Associate Director of Development. We discussed what their current marketing funnel is now and how I thought I could help add to it. Then I meet with the CEO. She came in and asked what was Alley Cat Allies Mission. This is a fair question and I must admit I wasn't prepared for it. But the next question was "Am I an Advocate for the Cats?" After she explained what exactly she meant. I answer, "I help by using my fundraising skills to give the charity the funds it needs to advocate for the cats." She then stated that 90% of the employees in office are advocates. She then thanks me for my honesty and left. She didn't ask me one questions about the job or its description. This was very disappointing as I know I could have help them increase their fundraising so that they could advocate for more Cats.

I applied online, then received a phone call to set up a first interview. There I met with two director/manager level people who told me more about the role. This was followed by a second interview with higher-ups.

I was interviewed twice over the phone for this position and offered a third in person interview that I declined. The interview process as not difficult and they were not very thorough in their questioning. They were mostly interested in my volunteer and work history. After I applied, I received an email from human resources less than a week later to set an interview up. I think this was a position I could've been offered, but after reading the reviews on here and reaching out to former employees it just did not seem like a good decision to uproot my life for a negative work environment.

This was a first-round phone interview with one person. Typical interview questions - why do want this job, my experience, etc. The interviewer seemed quite bored and disinterested, which made it difficult to engage with her. The interview questions were easy to answer but overall it wasn't an experience that left me feeling good about the company or the job.

After a warm welcome to the very quiet office, I met with two team members who asked questions related to the specific job duties and answered my questions. After that, I met with the CEO, who seemed more interested in learning about my volunteer work than she was in my skills/ability to do the job at hand. I was asked to submit several writing samples (these were in addition to the three that I submitted with my resume and cover letter), which I did.

After driving 3 hours down from Pennsylvania for this interview with the HR person (an entry-level intern) and the Director, the Director was too busy to be bothered with interviewing me. The interview had been scheduled for a full week and they clearly knew that I had to make this long drive. The HR girl seemed embarrassed and humiliated. If I hadn't been so furious with the Director, I'd have felt sorry for the girl.

Overall, the interviews with various persons was positive. I must say however (below) that I was put-off by the vegan comment/caveat that was not specifically mentioned to me prior to arrival. If this was a deal-breaker, I have to question why I took 2 hours of my day to make the interview.

Had a phone interview with their human resources person for the Data Management Specialist position. The interview was mostly about organizational culture and fit, telling me about how they kept several rescued cats in the office, and whether or not I had any allergies to cats. A question about allergies to cats as early on as that surprised me. My understanding is that, under the ADA, employers are not allowed to ask any questions about medical conditions until after a job offer has been made. Information about allergies is a medical question, and as no job offer was made, I cannot state with confidence that my prospects for this position were not colored by medical information that they were not (yet) legally entitled to ask.