I reached out to one contact I had through a friend. She and I exchanged messages for about four weeks. It always took her several days, more than a week often to return my message or move the process forward. It started with a phone interview and then she wanted to look over my writing samples. Then I waited and waited. The entire time it felt like pulling teeth. Finally I got an interview with the President of that division. It took weeks to arrange. Then they begged off at the last minute. I finally sat down with him and the interview was okay, not great. He seemed to want me to come up with a solution within a minute for something that had been troubling him for days. Then he expressed doubt about my ability to get all the writing done. At the end I thought I made my case. He said he would get back to me in about a week. Two weeks later, nothing. So I called. His assistant said I should call back. When I did and on subsequent calls, they screened me out and I left at least 2 voicemails and 3 unanswered emails, before finally going back to my original contact to ask why they were avoiding me. Just awful treatment. And then they said they couldn't find a place for me. I just don't understand why people treat other people so badly.

I think it took a month or two after my application to be contacted to fill out a form that was sort of a written interview screening. It asked me about my experience with specific grade levels and what I was familiar with. After that, I had an hour long interview with a manager and another member of the team. I finally had a short editing assessment and was sent an offer within the week! Everyone that I met was very kind and the interviewing process went smoothly. I was never kept waiting for an update on my application.