Hachette Book Group Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was pretty straightforward. It started with a quick 15-minute phone chat with HR, followed by a 30-minute interview with the lead from the marketing department. It was all very simple and direct.

The interview started with a phone call from an HR recruiter. She mentioned that the questions might seem basic, as if she hadn't reviewed my resume, but assured me she had. Following that, I had a second round of interviews with the supervisor for the department I'm interested in.

The recruiter first sent me an interview request for a sales internship, but then retracted it, saying 'never mind.' They did apologize and a few weeks later sent an interview for a different, but related, sales internship. I did that interview and it went well; the interviewer was very nice. I also had to complete a practice Excel workbook to assess my skills, which was fine. The following week, I was scheduled for another interview, but this interviewer was less friendly and didn't provide much detail when answering my questions. Later that week, the original recruiter emailed asking if I could meet for a final interview that same day, with only a couple of hours' notice. This was too short for me, so I explained I was unavailable but could do it the next day. She responded that it wouldn't be necessary and that I had already done enough. A couple of days later, I was rejected. The entire process took about a month and a half, and I found parts of it unprofessional.

I applied online in February/March 2023 and a connection also recommended me. I spoke with the hiring manager, a team member, and two senior people, which was about 4 hours of interviews over two weeks. The conversations were great and the process was fast. It came down to me and one other person, and they said a decision would be made in two weeks. The job had been open since December 2022 and they wanted to hire someone quickly. A week after my last interview, they announced a hiring pause until the end of the month. I followed up every 2-3 weeks for the next two months. The HR person replied quickly and nicely but had no new information about the pause, the job, or what to expect. It's now August, and the job is still paused as far as I know; I never got any updates. The people I met were nice, but getting to the final stage and then being left waiting for months really gave me a bad impression of Hachette.