I completed three interviews and two tests for a job with Huco Consulting called "ESG Jr. Data Management Consultant – Computer Scientist." The company ghosted me after all of that, but to be fair, I didn't contact them either because I was left feeling very unsure about the whole thing. Although everyone I interacted with was nice, and the company is much more flexible with the number of hours worked than the standard (a great advantage for those who really need it), there were a number of red flags presented. The first test I took (after the second interview) was supposed to take two and a half hours, but I spent around five on it. (It is one thing if you already know how to do the tasks and another if you're learning them as you go along.) The first half was in Excel, and one huge portion of it had nothing to do with this particular role at all according to the company, although it was actually interesting. The second half was standard written questions - "tell me about a challenging time," etc. During the third interview, I learned that a) the role I was interviewing for actually had nothing to do with data or data management at all, but was instead a role that was supposed to set up software for clients; and b) multiple people hired the previous year had to be fired because they couldn't do well enough at the job. Huco's solution to this problem was to add a second, more difficult Excel test to the interview process. I found this a bit amusing, as one would think that perhaps they could provide just a little more training. (We would never dream of taking this approach on my own team where I currently work.) The other thing about the tests being in Excel is that Excel is not even mentioned until way down towards the bottom of the job description as part of a list of software that might be used. If they were looking for an Excel wizard, why not state it upfront to avoid wasting everyone's time? They wanted me to complete this second, five-hour test over the weekend, but I had plans, so I chose to do it on a Thursday night. I was exhausted, and could only complete about 75% of the tasks they wanted. They could have easily trained me for the last 25% in a couple of hours, but I never heard from them again. To me, it is strange that a company would expect someone to come in to a "junior" role already knowing 100% of the skills for that role, particularly when those skills aren't even really featured on the job ad, and refuse to do any training for that person. What about in the future when the company adopts new software? Are they just going to fire everyone who doesn't already magically know it? I think the company could benefit from some reflection on what exactly they actually are looking for (at least in this role) and perhaps how they could update the requisition to reflect that. I am certain that with some small changes, they would be more successful in finding the Excel wizards they seek.