A pre-schedule 15-minute phone call with a nice sounding young woman who was clearly reading questions from a script. The interview felt very canned and impersonal. When I asked for clarification on one of the questions she re-read it word for word and when I asked my question again in a different way she paused and said, "I'm just reading the questions they gave me...I don't know." Not a great first impression of the company but understandable. Toward the end of the interview, she said that the starting salary I had listed (on the online application I had originally filled out where they asked the question "What is your desired salary?") was higher than they were prepared to offer and asked if I was open to negotiating. I said yes and then asked what was the range they were working with for the position. She did not know but said she could ask her manager who would know. I am fully aware that this is standard but it was another unimpressive interaction with Etna. They were able to fully and clearly articulate the job requirements and expectations but were unable to offer a range of compensation after asking a prospective hire if the company could offer them a lower salary than desired. Lack of salary transparency is a well-documented contributor to wage gaps, specifically targeting women and POC. If Etna Interactive truly wants to be an inclusive and diverse leader in their industry and the local SLO community, start with salary transparency. SLO county is expensive and no self-respecting professional is looking to live paycheck to paycheck. Embrace the reality of whatever pay scale issues are currently being practiced at Etna and be a business game changer in SLO.

The interview process was casual. Everyone wears jeans. I was interviewed by the department head and one of the other writers.