The team reached out to schedule an interview, but strangely didn't ask when I was free - just scheduled a date and time. I wasn't free at the proposed time (surprise!), but after email ping pong we managed to schedule a time for a video call with the hiring manager that worked.
The first interview seemed to go well, with the hiring manager asking for writing samples which I later emailed to her. Being proactive, I also included times I was available to interview the following week if they decided they wanted to progress my candidacy.
After (presumably) examining the writing samples, I then received a request for a follow-up in-person, on-site panel interview with members of Draper's team, which would be the final interview before making their decision. No mention of who those people were though. And the proposed date and time was for a different week to all the dates and times I said was available. Strange, but not a big deal.
After asking for and finally receiving the names of the panel members I would be interviewing with, I had the second, in-person interview. I felt like it went ok, although I got a strange feeling when the head of the team, who previously lived in New Jersey, asked me about where I'd lived in NYC, and argued with me that Long Island City is far from Manhattan. (It's 1.5 miles and 10 minutes on the subway from my old apartment to Grand Central Station.) Other than that I felt like the interview went reasonably well.
As she was escorting me out, the hiring manager then said they would be making a decision within 1-2 days and would get back to me by then. She also mentioned the team lead may want another writing sample, although she personally didn't feel like it was necessary. At close of business that same day she sent me an email asking for a writing exercise due by 10 am the next day. I felt like this was not professional, given that I could have had commitments that prevented me from doing so, and I'd been given no concrete warning that this was coming.
Nevertheless I completed the exercise and returned it to them later that night.
I never received confirmation that they received the writing exercise, which is a basic courtesy and way to avoid communication breakdowns. Then, three days later, I received an auto-generated system email from an unmonitored Draper account, saying, "We have reviewed your resume and have carefully considered your qualification for this position. At this time, we are sorry to inform you that you do not meet the minimum qualifications for this role."
I have over 15 years experience, including over 2.5 years in internal comms at McKinsey, so needless to say I was surprised by this assessment.
I was also surprised because, in my experience as a job-seeker, this is the sort of email that is sent to candidates that won't be considered for an interview in the first place. Not an email that you send to someone whom you've had two, in-person interviews with. If it takes you multiple people looking at a resume, plus two in-person interviews, writing samples, and then a subsequent writing exercise to then decide that someone does not meet the minimum qualifications for a role, that suggests something may be seriously wrong with your process.
Standard practice (and you would think, basic, common decency), is for someone in HR or the hiring manager to send an email from their personal account saying something along the lines of:
"We appreciate your interest in [company] and the time you've invested in applying for the position.
"After carefully reviewing your candidacy, we've decided to move forward with other candidates whose qualifications more closely align with the requirements for this role."
"We truly appreciate the time and effort you invested in applying and encourage you to keep an eye on future opportunities with us. Your experience and skills are impressive, and we wish you all the best in your job search."
So this was an extremely impolitic way for Draper to say they didn't want to extend me an offer. They were either being petty and deliberately trying to insult me, or they're just incompetent at interviewing.
Either way, I found the entire process with Draper to be unprofessional and off-putting. I don't know if this is indicative of non-profits in general, the rest of Draper, or just this specific team, but I would avoid interviewing here again.