The first interview felt positive. In hindsight, my experience was not thoroughly discussed. The personality-forward format would follow through to the second interview.
The second interview felt less positive. The disconnect between what I had been asked to prepare and what the interviewers expected made it difficult for me to meet their expectations.
One of the interviewers told me that the written test I would take afterwards was primarily to check the quality of my writing skills. However, a separate person from the two interviewers administered the written test. That third person told me the test was to examine if my industry knowledge was suitable for the role.
I was given 15 to 20 minutes for the written test but was never told there was a time limit. In fact, when the person came back to tell me my time was up, I had not been able to start the final question. I explained that they had not informed me that it was only 15 to 20 minutes. They told me they had to be fair as everyone else had received the same amount of time, though my recruiter later told me I was one of two candidates to make the second round of interviews.
The fact that the criteria were not made clear made the interview difficult, but I would not say that it was inherently difficult.
