I wanted to be to the point on this: my time trying to interview for this position felt predatory, and purposely misleading on the recruiter's part. I saw the reviews on here, and tried to be optimistic, but like most of what you see on here: I was disappointed and mistreated in the end.
Here's the general bullet points of my experience.
- I was reached out to by a recruiter from Reynolds and Reynolds (I never reached out to them), asking me to apply for the job; they said I had skills that would be a perfect fit for the role. I stated I wasn't interested due to the location being an hour away, but would potentially be if it had the option to be remote instead, to which the recruiter claimed that they were open to it. So I agree to follow the next steps.
- I was asked to take an aptitude test on my home computer, which would fail to load after trying to submit the work history portion. I reached out and let this be known to the recruiter. They said they would let their developers know, and they'd reach back out when it would be fixed. This was a red flag because they are a form company, and their own digital form didn't work. I still was optimistic. They reached out a few days later stating it had been fixed, but it wasn't. I tried the online form on my two computers, even going to my local library to the same result.
- The recruiter requested that I come in person to take their aptitude test, to which I requested if I could have an interview due to the travel time being about an hour. They said I had to take the aptitude test either way, but that they'd schedule and have an interview for me within the same day; this ended up being an exaggeration/borderline lie.
- The aptitude test is as weird as everyone makes it sound - psychological questions, and patterns that make you feel infantilized on some, and then too harshly questioned on others. The test ends with a 30 min timed portion of algebraic problems, where if you are a more artistic brained person/applying for an artistic role, you probably aren't gonna get the best score on, but realistically algebra has never been necessary in any form of my life, career, or any design job - so I took it confidently, and answered as best as I could.
- The overall test took almost 3 hours, and then the recruiter met with me and took me in a room, just then clearly mulling over my resume which I had already sent them about two weeks before. They talked to me for less than 5 minutes, claimed they were forwarding my info to the marketing team, saying they would follow up with me with a skype interview so I wouldn't have to drive all the way back down, and then bid me farewell - of which I said thanks for your time, and went about my day, DESPITE not actually getting an interview like I had been told I would receive. Walking through my resume, and not being able to answer my questions about the role for 4-5 mins is not what I consider a true interview.
- Almost two days later I received an automated response, not a human one like I had been getting leading up to that day, stating that they were to pursue other candidates for the role. Clearly I didn't pass their aptitude test, which again, as most people have claimed, feels uncomfortable, invasive at times, and outdated for recruiting, and is clearly a foreshadow of what the company culture is might be reminiscent of.
- I reached out to the recruiter, innocently asking "if this was a mistake" because I never received the interview they promised me, not to mention I was asked to take essentially over 4 hours of my day (travel time+ testing time) to essentially be mislead to take aptitude test, with no interview, what felt like a recruiter just trying to make their quota for applicants - whatever the cost.
In closing: this was a pretty unprofessional experience, I was mislead and mistreated (like most claim on here, which follow your gut on that), and now just ghosted without the common courtesy of "we're sorry" or any type of explanation from a human being. I don't recommend applying here for any role, especially a design one - especially if they're reaching out to you to apply because it's, from my perspective, just recruiters trying to desperately do their jobs without true consideration for other people.
The design world is tough, stay strong fellow creators and don't sell yourself short for predatory hiring practices.