There were four rounds in the interview process, and I was rejected at the third-round interview. I had a great experience speaking with the hiring manager and the HR representative in the first two rounds. However, during the third round, which was a technical interview, the interviewer arrived 15 minutes late. He then asked me two questions related to my current role, and when I mentioned that I did not have direct work experience with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), he immediately rejected me. I was surprised for two reasons: 1.) AEM was listed as a preferred qualification in the job description, not a strict requirement. 2.) I had already disclosed my lack of AEM experience in the first two rounds, while also highlighting my expertise with other content management systems. The hiring manager in the second round even reassured me that this would not be an issue, as AEM is generally considered easier to use than the platforms I’ve worked with. It would have been helpful if the interview panel had been more aligned on which skills were truly must-have versus preferred. The inconsistency in expectations across the interview stages was disappointing—especially from a company of such scale. Lastly, I also feel it was a bit unfair to be rejected solely for not having experience with a specific content management tool. I gained my CMS expertise through hands-on work, and these platforms are not complex systems that require 6–12 months of training to master. In my opinion, CMS tools are relatively straightforward to learn, and the skills are highly transferable across platforms.

The first interview was conducted through the phone for about 30 minutes. They briefly explained the role and proceeded with asking general questions. I proceeded to the final round that had a 2 hour interview process with 4 different people; 3 of them worked in the web production team and 1 of them worked in the web development team.