I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at Fire&Spark
Interview
About a week after applying, I received an email that said, "Welcome to the next round." This email said that step one was a test, and it included a document with instructions.
The test consisted of many SEO questions, many about AI, GEO, and technical SEO. It took around 4-5 hours to complete and was quite a time investment.
After about two weeks, I received a generic email that said, "We received a large number of applications, making it a highly competitive process. At this time, we have decided to move forward with other candidates."
I asked the recruiter if I could at least have feedback from my test, since I took so much time to complete it, and she said, "Due to the high volume of applications...we’re typically not able to provide individual feedback. Thank you for understanding!"
So, applicants are expected to take hours of their time to complete the test, but the hiring team can't take 5 minutes to provide feedback to those applicants. This shows a clear disrespect toward applicants' time and effort.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They provided a link to a website and then asked a series of questions about how you would improve it for GEO, prioritize projects, and suggest next steps.
Applied online and received an email about doing a test that had to be done within a few days. The test itself was a little more extensive than what most companies would expect but nothing I couldn’t handle. After having completed the test I quickly received an email that they were moving on to other candidates. No other explanation than that. The impression I received was that they are either looking for free work from applicants or they are looking for people they can control and pay as little as possible. Based on the questions asked in the test I could tell they don’t really understand SEO but think they are on the cutting edge of it.
The interview process is fairly intensive and time consuming. There are multiple interview rounds with different people at the company, test projects to complete, and an on call test during the last interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe difficult client or work problems you’ve encountered in the past and how you’ve dealt with them
