I applied online, about a week later I was asked for a telephone interview. This interview was competency and motivation based, and asked some background questions. I would recommend doing your homework on the publishing industry and the journal beforehand, but that's pretty standard for any interview for a role similar to this one. A few days later I was invited to a "2 hour face to face interview with [name of Assistant Editor]" in their office in London. In hindsight, I should have asked to be provided with more information about this interview beforehand. This interview was the hardest I've ever done by a long way - the individual task was to read 2 papers, summarise them, write down some key words, pros and cons... in 45 minutes, and then discuss with the Assistant Editor. It was pretty impossible to do a thorough job here, although maybe with some prep it would have been easier, if I'd have been made aware that I was even going to have to do an individual task. Then there was about 20-30ish minutes of email scenario questions, how you'd answer emails from reviewers/authors, fair enough, some were difficult as very little context provided. I then spoke to the Editor-in-Chief, this was a 20-30 minute very informal interview, she seemed nice but intense. Then I was introduced to other Editorial Assistants and spoke with them informally, they were nice. I didn't get a good feeling about the company when visiting, due to the lack of information given about my interview and its difficulty. I felt that I generally didn't 'get on' with the Assistant Editor. I'd decided I wasn't going to take the job if it was offered to me as I personally didn't want to work there. I'm going to assume I was unsuccessful as it's been over a month and I still haven't heard back from them, despite sending follow-up emails. The fact they haven't bothered to get back to me has pretty much solidified the fact that I don't want to work for them.

It was thorough. I met with two people who were very organized and asked lots of questions in a short period of time. They were friendly and the interview was less formal than others I had at publishing companies. They answered all my questions.