San Francisco-Marin Food Bank Interview Questions
& Process

It included two Zoom interviews. First, there was a prescreening. Then, a panel Zoom interview, though it might be up to three interviews depending on the position. Make sure you do your work and research the organization's mission.

I had a phone screen, then an in person interview, a skills test, a writing test, and then was asked to come back as a finalist. I interviewed with the Grants Manager and the Director of Development. The Grants manager spent most of her time "selling" the position to me, and seemed like she would be pleasant to work with. The dev associate that she managed was the one to phone screen and interview me initially, she had been promoted and seemed professional and genuinely happy with her work. The only serious let down was that the DOD took a very negative strategy in her interview style. She was snippy and rude from the beginning, rolled her eyes at my answer, shook her head at me when she was unsatisfied with another answer to a negatively framed questions, and finally, the kicker, she accused me of having been fired from my last job. This was most certainly not the case. She made me decide that if I was offered the job I would not want to work with her. Very disrespectful, it seemed uneccessary.

I was contacted by a recruiter at an agency about a role at SF-Marin Food Bank since I was recently laid off. The recruiter provided a lot of useful info about the company and team. I had a good initial chat with the recruiter and the hiring team. After talking to the hiring manager, I decided to decline the offer because of the pay, which is common in the nonprofit sector. I told the recruiter, and they got really rude and tried to shame me for turning it down, saying companies won't hire me because of my resume gap. I think a good recruiter would understand that my resume gap was likely due to COVID-19 and not a personal failing. The recruiter was probably stressed about their quota, but shaming me was out of line. SF-Marin Food Bank should consider handling hiring internally or vetting their recruiters more carefully.

I applied online and about a week later, the hiring manager reached out for an interview. It turns out it was a brand new role for the company. We had a good talk, but then I heard nothing back. I suspect they were just collecting info and might not have been serious about hiring for the position.