I applied online. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Sun Life (Toronto, ON) in May 2020
Interview
Process was pretty straightforward - had a screening call with HR, and then was interviewed by the hiring manager the following week and it seemed to be moving quickly. The interview itself was very typical, and the interviewer was friendly and she was upfront that the process can be a bit slow. However, the company then went completely silent for over a month and a half afterwards with no one I could follow up with, and then out of nowhere sent a writing assignment in an email late at night just before the HR Person sending it and who was responsible for it went on vacation the next day. I was given about 4 days to complete it which was fine. I completed it and sent it in ahead of the deadline, but was given no acknowledgement it was received. The following day I received an automated email telling me I was no longer being considered. I'm not sure if the assignment just wasn't received as the answer came so quickly I'm not sure if they even reviewed it, or if it just wasn't what they were looking for (which is totally fine). I'll never know, as no human being actually contacted me afterwards. I understand it's a large company, but if someone has taken the time to do two long interviews and spend hours on an assignment on their own time, the least that can be done is a short email thanking them for their time and letting them know you're going in another direction. Also, each time I was emailed it seemed to come from a different HR Person, so there was no one I felt I could follow up with throughout the process and when I sent an email, no one replied. Overall, I'm sure they're just busy but felt like it could have been a bit more respectful of the time of those interviewing.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about your experience with media relations and some of the contacts you have
Two interviews - one with the manager and then another with the manager and someone else on the team. After the interviews, I was selected to do a skills test which they asked a specific question to do a communications plan
I applied online. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Sun Life (Toronto, ON) in Mar 2019
Interview
After the initial phone interview, I was scheduled to do an in-person interview with two managers. I was emailed before the interview and told that I would actually be meeting with the director and a manager because one of the managers had hurt her wrist.
The in-person interview was fantastic and the hiring managers seemed extremely happy with me and let me know that I would most likely be asked to come in and interview with a few people above the director, though the director said they would have the final word in hiring. I was also told that either way, I would be contacted by the end of the following week.
I didn't hear back from them for two weeks, so I followed up and was told that they were putting hiring "on pause" because of the manager's injured wrist, which was injured before I had interviewed with them.
I then didn't hear from them for another three weeks until I received a boilerplate rejection email thanking me for my application for the "Senior Communications Specialist" position, which wasn't what I had applied to. The email also seemed to imply that I hadn't actually interviewed with them, which was confusing.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The director asked me to describe how I would approach a negative and serious subject with the positivity that defines the Sun Life brand.