Macmillan Learning Interview Questions
& Process

I got contacted by a recruiter and was really excited about the job. The first interview was supposed to be with a senior manager, but they actually hadn't hired the direct report for the role yet. The manager was almost 15 minutes late to our virtual meeting. After that, the next steps were a project, a demo, and a panel interview. You'll need to set aside some personal time to prep because all they give you access to is a course on their platform. I interviewed with the panel, but after that, I decided it wasn't a good fit for me and I passed on moving forward. Honestly, I didn't want to spend more time on it and wasn't impressed with the feedback I heard. The project involved creating a 90-day plan, and they didn't even review it. So, whoever gets the job will have a really solid starting roadmap.

Man, I was pretty let down by how this company handled their interviews. I applied in June for a job I interviewed for in July. The whole thing took more than two months, and a final decision was made mid-August. They had me do this huge take-home assignment, and I had a whole week to finish it. I usually hate doing those because it feels like companies just use your work without paying you, especially when there's no job guarantee. For a junior to mid-level gig, I really didn't think a project was needed; just showing work samples would've been fine. But whatever, I did the take-home anyway and then finished all the final interviews. After that, they basically ghosted me for about a month and a half while they figured out their process with other candidates. It's nuts to keep someone hanging around that long if you're not sure about hiring them. If you're not gonna hire someone, just tell them quickly so they don't waste more time waiting. For the pay and the level, the interview process was just too much for a junior to mid role. Most folks were nice, but I was really bummed about how it all went down.

So, I found out about this job through a friend who works at Sapling. They thought I'd be a good fit and told me to reach out to the recruiter. I sent my resume, and the recruiter got back to me pretty fast. We chatted about what roles they had available, and they had me apply for a marketing position. I had a phone interview with the hiring manager for that role, which went okay. Then, I had an in-person interview with two people: the person who used to do the job and the hiring manager's boss. That seemed to go really well. They asked for some work samples, which I sent. After that, the recruiter contacted me again to schedule a final interview with the whole marketing team. The whole thing took about a month because I have a full-time job, so it was a bit tricky to set up interviews. On the day of my final interview, the recruiter called me two hours before it was supposed to happen and said the head of marketing had a meeting. He asked me to send my availability to reschedule the group interview. I emailed him the next day with some times, but then... nothing. No response, even after I sent a few follow-up emails and made a couple of calls. I even tried reaching out to one of the marketing team members I interviewed with, just in case the recruiter had left or my emails weren't getting through. At first, I figured they were just swamped with pre-holiday stuff, but I haven't heard back even after the holidays are over. It's really weird because before the recruiter went silent, I had a really good impression of Sapling, and everyone I spoke with was friendly, open, and seemed excited about me joining them.

I had a quick phone call first, and then I got scheduled for a second interview two weeks later since I asked for that. During the second interview, I talked with three people from the Sales Associate team; two of them had been there a few years, and one was hired more recently. It was a 30-minute meeting, and not long after, about an hour later, they emailed me a sample assignment to do and set a date for a final interview with the hiring manager for the team. I had one business day to finish the assignment, and the very next day I had the final interview, which was also 30 minutes long. The hiring manager went into more detail about the daily job tasks and asked a couple of questions.