POPSUGAR Interview Questions
& Process

I applied for the Assistant Editor position in early January and HR contacted me a few days later to do a pretty long editorial test. After sending it in and not hearing back for two weeks, I reached out to HR and got a super enthusiastic email back saying I did great and the editorial team wanted me for an onsite interview. The interview itself seemed to go well. I learned more about the job and the company, and they emphasized how much everyone loved working there and how they took care of employees. I even felt like I clicked with the editor who would have been my direct manager, which is always good. Even though they told me I was overqualified, I said it was fine because it's Popsugar and would be a great opportunity (plus I've been a long-time fan of the site). They said it would be a few weeks before they'd get back to me, but they definitely would. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. After two weeks, I figured I'd check in with HR about the hiring process. Nothing. That was a Monday. The following Friday, I followed up again. Maybe it was a busy week and, let's be honest, sometimes emails get lost. But still nothing. Two weeks later, I decided to contact one of the editors who interviewed me during my onsite. It had been four weeks by then and I just wanted to know if I got the job (honestly, if they haven't replied after four weeks, it's probably not happening). Just for closure. Still no response. In my final attempt, I called HR. The call went to voicemail, and I left a message asking for someone to please get in touch. If you guessed that I didn't hear back, you'd be right. It's now a month and a half after the interview, and I can only assume the office got stuck in some kind of email- and phone-free time warp that makes it impossible to communicate with the outside world. Kidding aside, this whole experience has been incredibly disappointing, both as a candidate and as a reader. I can handle not getting a job; it's part of the job search. What's frustrating is the complete lack of professionalism. It's ironic that the company with a whole section on career advice can't even bother to tell candidates if they got the job. I wonder how hard it would be to send a few lines saying I wasn't successful? To management: please review your hiring process. How your company treats potential employees reflects on your brand. Looking at other reviews, this isn't the first time HR has messed up communication with candidates. Instead of sending a generic 'we're sorry, we're reviewing our process...' reply, which has happened before and clearly hasn't led to any changes, actually do something to make sure your current employees aren't wasting the time of prospective employees.

So after I applied, the hiring manager hit me up and I had to do an edit test. I had 24 hours to get it back to them. After that, they scheduled an interview. Since I was moving, I had to fly out for it. The hiring manager knew this and changed my interview date at the last minute, so I had to change my flight and pay for it. The interview itself had me talking to three different people: the hiring manager, someone who might be on my team, and Lisa Sugar. Each chat was about 20 minutes, so 60 minutes total. They told me I was the first person they interviewed for the job and I'd get an update in a few weeks. It took a month and a half to hear back, but they offered me the job over the phone.

I applied online and an outside recruiter reached out for some screening questions. After sending those, the hiring manager contacted me for availability. I responded quickly but heard nothing back. After two follow-ups, the hiring manager asked me to come in that same day. The interview was pretty simple, and I was given an assignment afterward. I spent about 3-4 hours on it and submitted it the next day but got no response. About a week later, an assistant to two executives contacted me about a second round. The interview was easy, more like a conversation. I felt really good about it. I kept following up with the hiring manager, and a month later she told me I'd get an offer in the new year. This whole thing had already taken two months. When the new year started, communication became spotty, and it felt off. I couldn't get a clear answer, but the same executive I'd met before wanted to interview me AGAIN. By then, I had other offers and decided to move on. The entire process was long, messy, and poorly communicated. I expected an HR person to manage it, but that didn't happen.

So I applied online and heard back in about 3-4 days for the ShopStyle QA-Automation team role. They were looking to build out an automation framework for their web app, and also expand it to mobile (iOS & Android). The first step was a phone screen where we chatted about my resume, and they asked some basic software engineering, Linux, and tool-related questions from my past work. That led to a 2-hour on-site interview with 4 rounds, one of which was with the manager. They get back to you pretty fast, usually within 3-4 days after the on-site.