QED Group LLC Interview Questions
& Process

I had a phone screening, followed by an in-person interview, and then a call with HR. The first two parts went great, but the HR call was a bit off. They seemed ready to offer me the job, but then asked about salary. I gave them my figure, and they countered with 15% less, which I thought was way too low and not market rate. The HR person said my 'field experience' wasn't as valuable as DC experience, which felt pretty condescending. We didn't reach an agreement, and I never heard back. It turned out to be a good thing, though, as I'm now at a bigger competitor making 5% more than I asked for. My advice to others: don't accept low pay!

The interview process itself was pretty simple, but the HR follow-up after the interviews was really bad. This seems to be a shared issue between HR and the interviewer, as you end up having to chase them a lot for results. Management also seemed unsure about the position, as it was put on hold and then eventually canceled. They really need to be more careful in their screening process, as it's not okay to decide after the interview that they were only looking for candidates who worked with specific clients. People's time shouldn't be wasted like this.

QED reached out to me for an initial phone chat with their HR folks right after I applied online back in early March. It was a pretty standard interview covering the job details. I found out during this chat that some things in the job description weren't quite right, like it said it was temporary but it's not. It felt like there wasn't great communication between QED and USAID from the start. After the phone interview, they wanted me to come to USAID HQ for another interview. They gave me less than 24 hours notice, offering time slots for the very next day or the day after, which was tricky since I was driving from out of town. I tried to be accommodating and headed to DC. I ended up waiting about an hour in the USAID lobby. When USAID staff finally met me, they had no idea I was coming because QED hadn't clued them in. Luckily, they could still interview me after my 3.5-hour drive. The interview with two USAID people went really well, I thought. I went back home and the next week, they contacted me to pick from three time slots for a second interview with the department director and some other staff. Again, the timing was last minute, but I was really keen on the job, so I just went with it and drove back up. I had a fantastic time interviewing with the director and two other staff members. Then, they asked for my references via email and checked them. I returned home and didn't hear from QED for weeks. I followed up by email, and they got back a few days later saying the client was still considering candidates and would update me. I ended up having to email USAID staff directly to find out if the job was filled, over a month after QED's last response. They then sent a generic rejection email. While I get that mix-ups happen, and I was initially pleased with QED's recruitment, my opinion changed during the process. I was ultimately pretty disappointed with them. It feels disrespectful to expect candidates to be flexible and stick to a schedule, only to be left in the dark when the client isn't interested anymore, which is what I suspect happened. Communication from QED after the final interview was basically nonexistent and dismissive.

It was a pretty good interview process. They asked all of the relevant questions for a sales role. It was a pretty standard interview, and I enjoyed it because they were fair.