I got through the initial interview, two writing tests, and declined a second interview. I interviewed with Cho himself, and it was one of the least professional interviews I'd ever taken part in. I completely understand the negative reviews this firm has had about its work culture based on that conversation alone. Like the other interview review said, he asked a lot of personal questions that were irrelevant to the job, and insinuated that my current work experience in the journalism industry (famously one of the most deadline-driven industries out there) was a "red flag" and that writers have a poor grasp on deadlines. He asked me whether or not I ever played sports. He also spent a lot of the interview just talking, so much so that by the end I felt like I had barely said anything. Still, I made it to the next round. These writing assessments were the real red flag for me. The first writing exercise gave you two writing prompts about people who needed to prove their immigration status was valid under various circumstances. I chose one where a woman who had gotten her citizenship via a green card marriage has to prove her marriage was genuine after she gets a divorce. You get one paragraph of information, and are asked to write about a page, which means you essentially have to fabricate the details as though it were a creative writing exercise. I felt extremely uncomfortable doing this. After passing the first, I moved onto the second writing assessment, which was to write a blog post in the style of their website on something it hasn't covered. This is essentially just unpaid labor. They won't publish your work, but it's still a substantial amount of research you have to do for no pay. I was offered a second interview, but it had to be in person because Cho believes there's some essence about a person you can only gauge by meeting them in person. I made it clear that it would cost me over $500 for flights alone, but there was no flexibility there. A bullet dodged at the end of the day. Other warnings: This job is a 3-year commitment, which isn't written on the listing. There's also no transparency about salary expectations throughout the whole process.

Cho interviewed me. A very disrespectful interview process. He asked lots of irrelevant personal questions that had nothing to do with the job. During the interview, he asks me to describe myself in one sentence. After I described it, he said that was an uninteresting response to hear...He was being so arrogant...I can totally feel the toxic culture of this firm even only by the interviewing process. An exhausting interview to have.