Ruby Interview Questions
& Process

The interview was conducted over Zoom. We reviewed my assessment and typing skills test. We discussed my previous customer service experiences and the responsibilities of the role. I was asked some questions and then observed a current employee performing their duties to gauge my suitability for the position.

They reached out to me by email to set up the interview, very professional. All my interviews were virtual and I met with a few different interviewers. One was one-on-one, and another was a panel with two interviewers. HR kept me updated on the process through email.

I interviewed for an elevated position. The first two interviews, nobody showed up. The first one they blamed a tech issue & the second they just straight up said, "well she's not in today." Finally, by the third interview someone showed up but she had workers there fixing her garage, so I was put on hold several times for several minutes so she could go manage that. At this point, I felt as though because so much time had passed that they already knew what candidates they wanted and they were just going thru the motions with me. This was only confirmed when I got the email for the second and third interview. That's right, I ALREADY got the second and third interview and they were scheduled in the SAME email. That confirmed even MORE of my suspicions that we are just going thru motions here. The second interview? Two ladies popcorned questions off of a script. They would read the question, listen to my answer and immediately move to the next question. No follow up questions, questions about experience, situations, nothing. It was supposed to be 45 minutes, but it was done in 15. By the time I got to my third interview... he warned that they scheduled it for 30 minutes but it would end early. He asked four questions and it ended in 10. There was absolutely NO shock when the rejection email came.

I was scraping the bottom of the barrel when I applied to be a virtual receptionist at Call Ruby. Given how frequently they post the same job opening, I figured the company must be in dire need of some basic competence. Since I have a dulcet voice and quick reflexes, I applied with a dumbed-down version of my resume. A month after applying, I was contacted for a phone screen. This went well. The recruiter had a warm phone presence. The questions she asked were fairly normal for a customer service role; there was a little bit about why I was making a career switch, but nothing unfair or difficult. She murmured encouragingly after several of my answers, and by the end of the call invited me to come in the next week for an in-person follow-up. Face to face, however, she was a real jerk. She didn’t interview me so much as grill me with variations on the same question over and over again – it felt more like I had to justify my existence to her. I maintained my composure, which she seemed determined to undermine. The interviewer seemed to take pleasure in needling me. She seemed very caught on WHY I wanted to do something so different from my previous work history, as if my reasons for applying were – in her estimation – dubious and dishonest. I confided to her that I had been the victim of age discrimination; that as an older person in an occupation dominated by the very young, I wasn’t getting the offers I used to get and could see no reversal of fortune; therefore, it had become necessary for me to take a risk and do something else entirely. The interviewer became more openly judgmental and abrasive. Oddly enough, there was no simulated testing or role playing to gauge how I might perform on the job; it literally all came down to one person’s value judgments – hers. Despite her boorish conduct, I followed up with a thank-you email later the same day and reiterated my focus on adapting and succeeding. The next morning, a canned email rejection arrived. She didn’t even type her name to it. I found the interviewer to be so cruel and so disgusting, I complained about her and her process to the owner and a couple of senior-level HR people. Several weeks elapse with no response. Call Ruby’s silence on the issue indicated to me that the higher-ups condone their interviewer’s abuse of power. A belated – and nonsensical – response arrived that ignored the crux of what I was saying, very pointedly DID NOT apologize to me, and somewhat improbably stated, “We thrive through the relationships we build.”