I applied through an employee referral towards the end of March 2014 for the graduate rotational program in San Francisco and was shortly contacted by the SF HR office to set up a phone interview with the HR in London. When the HR gave me a time for the interview, she did not specify the time zone, even when I e-mailed to clarify. The next day I sat around waiting for the call, waking up early in case we were operating on Eastern Time (as I was based in Boston). When I did not receive a call, I assumed we were operating on PST so I waited. Still, no call. I followed up with an e-mail and was told 'Sorry for the delay!' and had my phone interview rescheduled for the following week. Once again, the time zone was not established and I had to ask again. After a series of e-mails and coordinating schedules and time zones, we finally set up a time and date for the first round interview. The call was pleasant, very simple and straightforward. I spoke with a lady in London and was told to move forward to the second round for the online aptitude test. Normally after phone screens, the HR is supposed to follow up in regards to the next steps in the interview process. I did not hear back until I prompted the SF HR asking for the link. Per her instruction, I finished the online test within 24 hours so that we could speed up the recruitment process. The quantitative assessment included questions like those on the SAT math portion, only it was free response and took 20 minutes to complete. Once again, after finishing with this stage of the interview process, I waited to hear back from the HR in SF. When a week passed, I e-mailed her asking for updates on my application. She stated that because the HR in London was away on vacation that no decisions could be made and that she would get back to me as soon as she returned. After another week of no updates, I followed up again. The same day I received a response from the HR in SF and she asked if I could take the online aptitude test. I replied letting her know that I had already taken the aptitude test... two weeks ago. Then I was told the same story again--that she'd get back to me. Eventually I did receive a response and was asked whether I could be at the San Francisco office that week. As I had stated before, I was based in Boston so that complicated matters. However, in the phone interview I had with the London HR I was told that the NY office could conduct the interview. So when I told her that I would not be able to come into the SF office but could still make arrangements to go to NY, I did not receive a response. I believe there is a huge lack of communication between the London and SF offices. I followed up with her a week later and was asked if I would mind having a video call for my third round interview. As usual, I responded with a date and time, but still, no response. Ten days later, I followed up yet again and was finally given a time to interview...for the next day. Because of the time difference, I did not see the e-mail until early that morning and when I did reply to confirm the interview and provide times to reschedule if it was no longer an option, I didn't receive a response. Five days later I followed up and promptly received a response asking to set up a phone call with the HR in London. At this point, I no longer had high hopes to partake in this program or join the Essence team. I'd been waiting for over two months now and was extremely frustrated with the recruitment process and lack of communication. When I got on the phone with the HR in London, I was un-surprised to hear that they had already filled all of the positions in the SF office with candidates who were in the process before me and that I unfortunately could not move forward. While I understand that this is common in many companies, I am disappointed with the lack of transparency and slow response rate. I do not want to make any accusations, but I can assume that the HR in SF chose to ignore my e-mails as she often responded within the hour or same day usually after my second follow-up e-mail. Had they been clear and honest with me in regards to the recruitment process, I could have spent my time much more efficiently. I understand that the job hunt is always a gamble but I did not feel respected in this interview process. Through it all, the lack of respect that I received gives me hope that my future recruitment experiences will be much more positive.

Online test, telephone interview, interview at Essence. The case study was awful and unrealistic. The original person who was meant to interview me was not available, so they sent someone else in which was fine. When the person finally came after a bit of a wait, she came in, sat down and just blurted out the questions. For the non mathematical ones this was alright, but it was rather difficult to take in all the information for the mathematical ones. I understand that this was meant to test my maths skills and reaction to the situation, but the situation was rather unrealistic as I cant imagine someone coming up to me in any job and then blurting out a questions about market shares, percentages and sales price on the spot and then stare at me and time me whilst I do it. Whats more, half way through the interview, her friends came in and ask if she is ready to go to lunch, which made me felt like I was holding her up as I was still trying to figure out the answer. I did not hear from Essence for over a month afterwards and it wasn't until a month later when I decide to make contact to follow up that I got a response.