he recruiter experience was positive and professional; however, the first-round interview itself was not. The interviewer joined with her camera off and did not acknowledge it, nor did she introduce herself (name, role, or background). My camera remained on throughout the interview. During the conversation, there was ongoing background noise, including a baby. During my second response, I paused to ask for clarification about the noise, as it was distracting and made it difficult to focus. At that point, the interviewer explained that her nanny was sick and she was working from home, which was why her camera was off. Given the circumstances, a brief pause or reschedule would have been more appropriate to ensure a focused and equitable interview environment. Several questions were structured as multiple questions combined into one, making them difficult to address clearly. The interview felt unorganized overall, with unclear prompts and limited follow-up. While the first portion of the interview was manageable, the tone shifted during the second response, after which the interview was abruptly concluded with “That’s it—any questions?” Because no introduction had been provided, I asked at the end of the interview for her role and background, which she acknowledged should have been shared earlier. Overall, the experience raised concerns about communication, organization, and leadership expectations, and did not reflect an environment that sets candidates or teams up for success. After the interview, I immediately withdrawn my application. I have never had an interview like this an Chewy should have baseline standards on conducting interviews.

Brace yourself if you go through this interview process, as it is overly scripted and unnecessarily drawn out. Over two weeks, I talked to seven different people. The interview format felt like you were taking the oral version of a standardized test based on the pre-distributed list of Chewy values. The questions were long-winded and clinical. Initially, I imagined working at Chewy would have been fun. There was no sense in interviewing for a job with a healthy work culture. In reality, almost everyone who interviewed me seemed non-plussed, and somebody used the word obedient as a top trait needed to be successful in this position. I now understand the comments left on Glassdoor by previous employees: "They are trying to emulate Amazon and force things that do not make sense." "Company culture does not align with what we want our customers to think about us."