Applied for an Account Supervisor position in one of their U.S. offices. 2 weeks later was contacted by HR in NYC confirming interest in my candidacy. 30-minute interview with VP-level recruiter, went over my resume, learned more about the role, your standard introductory interview. About a month later, was advanced to the next round and spoke with five members of the team I'd be on over the phone for 30 minutes each. All asked at least 1-2 thoughtful questions, but most were quite general and didn't directly refer to anything on my resume and clearly denoted that they did not prepare beforehand or read my resume. I understand that not everyone has time to go through a candidate's background to determine how it might align with the role requirements, but some of the questions asked were rather comical. Just so far off-base and didn't once acknowledge that I was applying for a role that I was overqualified for. Regardless, I was advanced to the next round about one month later (we're getting to the four-month mark for the total interview process for an Account Supervisor position if that says anything), and this was after repeated attempts to get in contact with the internal recruiter to learn more about next steps, which were flat out ignored until it suited him/her to proceed. Not even a "thanks for reaching out X! We're currently evaluating A, B and C and will follow up once we determine next steps, appreciate your patience!" Anyways...went into the office and interviewed with the exact same team members, was asked the exact same questions and followed up with another round of thank-you notes that, as I forgot to mention earlier, were also never responded to. Again, I get how busy we are as PR pros, but for an entire team to fail to even confirm receipt is absolutely astounding and wildly unprofessional. Recruitment is the most critical process for maintaining the health of a PR firm, especially one that is in the Omnicom umbrella, but all the rumors you heard were clearly true: it's a mess and a half for them and their WPP comrades-in-crisis. They made my decision to pursue other options an easy one. It's really unfortunate because Ketchum had a decent reputation prior to the acquisition, and despite my friends' protestations about interviewing there given their own horrible experiences within the firm (which were very positive at first but declined considerably over time), I proceeded with the interview process as long as I could take it. In full transparency, I made it to the final round before they offered it to someone else, but again, this was after ANOTHER month of following up multiple times with zero response until it was convenient for them. I'm sorry, but if it takes five months to hire an AS-level employee, that's a red flag. I dodged a bullet.
