Smartly.io

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Smartly.io.

Interview

I think I would have had a much better experience if all the information were presented to me upfront. The recruiting process is very extensive. I completed 4 rounds, and there were more to follow had I gotten through.

The 4th round consisted of giving a demonstration of the company's product interface. This included a 98 page book on how to give the demonstration, "2-3 days" to test the product on my own (over a holiday weekend), a one-hour phone tutorial on using the product, and then "8-10 more hours" to draft advertising campaigns using the product (not just designs, actual Facebook campaigns with allocated budgets and strategies). After my demonstration, I was asked to rate myself and then leave the room. When I came back, all my errors were listed out for me, and I was asked to rate myself again. This felt very degrading in the moment, because I felt I was being observed to see if I would lower my ranking after receiving feedback. Keep in mind this was all after dedicating several hours to learning this product, and being stalled several times by glitches and error messages. I felt a little better about my experience after watching the hiring director try to get past these errors by searching three different times in their help desk to finally find the answer. I had received so much information through so many outlets (emails, phone calls, in-person, blog links, ebooks, etc) that I was overwhelmed during the entire process. I was even asked questions from the employee handbook that the recruiter had linked in an early email.

I understand that this tedious process will help the company obtain a very specific type of employee. I just think it would be beneficial to everyone involved to be upfront and direct about the time a candidate will have to dedicate to get through this process. I personally was not in a terrific financial situation to be turning down paying work to get through this process, but I did, and tried my best anyway, and feel disappointed that all the errors that were pointed out were in reference to items that I didn't even realize were a part of the job description. There seemed to be a bit of confusion surrounding this, as one person told me my role would not involve selling this product to clients, and another told me I would be expected to explain all the details of it to clients on my own. Apart from all these technicalities, there were also just a lot of unnerving incidents, such as interviews being interrupted by other employees, texting during the interview process, unexpected employees appearing on video calls and asking me questions about Facebook advertising that I was not prepared for, etc. It was a lot.

I appreciate the quality control this company is going through, but I think they could be more considerate of their candidates. Thank you for the opportunity, and best of luck to you all and your new team member!

Interview Questions