I applied for this job at the end of July and heard back from a guy named Ahmed, he asked I take a standard graphics test to see if my skills are up to par. I was actually happy they did this to avoid getting any candidate who may not be up to par. Anyway, I send in the test and that was the last I heard. Emailed again two weeks later, and no response so I wrote off the job as "I am not good enough" and left it at that. Cut to ONE MONTH later and I get a response from another person named Vera. She tells me that they reviewed my test and liked what they see and would like to do a phone interview. I agree and we have our interview. The interview was a very standard HR type interview, "what is your best quality, what do you do when you are challenged etc." She said she will call me by the end of the week, the interview happened on Wednesday. Friday came and went and no response.

Monday arrives, and I get a call from Vera (no apology for not getting back to me), saying they would like to do an in person interview on Thursday. I agreed, and we lined up a time for me to interview. They inform me where to park (at my expense) and told me to show up 15 minutes in advance. I do this and show up at the correct time and meet up with Vera. Vera walks me into a room and then asks if i need anything and tells me she will be right back. Thinking that I would interview with more than just her and she would be getting maybe my new boss or co-worker she arrives back with my water and a clipboard, no other employee. Interview was pretty much the same interview I did with her on the phone and we talked about standard HR business questions. That interview ends and she informs me that there is a presentation about the history of the company that will happen in another room with another HR person.

The presentation was interesting, they went over the history of the previous company SMC.AC, the ups and downs of staring a company, .com bust etc. From there they go into the history of fanbox.com, how/why it started, what they do, what their plan is. The guy who was speaking seemed nice enough, very into what he was doing and drank a ton of rockstar. The presentation ends and we ask a couple questions, he then proceeds to talk about how the "joke of the day" texts are still going on (I guess a product that SMC.AC made a lot of money with back in the day) and opens up his phone and tells us a joke he got from a friend. The joke was not only not funny, but really inappropriate to tell. He got a good laugh out of it, and the candidates who were in the room with me chuckled awkwardly. Shortly after that, he let us know that there is yet another interview after this one.

I met with a girl who walked me to another room where I waited (for what I thought would be either my boss, or someone in P-Dev department) and I got neither. Turns out he is in tech, and he asked me a series of questions mostly pertaining to how I do in certain situations (which was asked previously by the first HR lady) and also mentioned that this company is a "startup" and there is a chance of not getting paid due to this reason. Also, asked about my general work ethic, how I felt about long hours and asked to see some of my other websites I have designed.

So after 2.5 hrs of interviewing, it was finally over and I could go home.

Overall, I felt the place had a very odd energy, very vacant building (from my understanding they went from 200 people to 50), and on top of that, I never saw anyone working, (I arrived at lunch time but left much later than lunch, and the building didn't feel our sound any more full). After the interview I did more research on the history of the company, the jobs etc, and I came to the conclusion to not take the position, mostly due to the reviews, the working hours (one HR guy said 55+ average work week), and the possibility that there is no pay because this company is a "startup". Which is odd, since they have been around for quite some time now.