I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at PLOS (Cambridge, East of England, England) in Oct 2018
Interview
Preliminary discussions with recruiter followed by a video interview. The interviewer was late and held the interview in a large room which caused her voice to echo. She had a strong accent, spoke fast and a lot, making it difficult to understand her speech. An ordinary telephone interview would have been more audible. She also spoke a lot after each question giving little time for an answer. It seemed as though she just wanted to get through the interview as the decision had been made beforehand. The interviewer needs training on interviewing skills including diction and clarity of questioning. If it was just a phone interview then that should have been made clear by her side. I don't know what else she wanted to hear regarding motivation - maybe accent like her own. Feedback was initially refused but after suggesting a face-book request I was told I was not motivated enough and I would not be "a good fit"; what they mean is that I am not "young enough" for the role. Looking at their web page I saw they were all relatively young with some but not significant research experience. That is not a problem for me but clearly are uncomfortable managing somebody older than themselves. Plos-one (a subsidiary of Public Library of Science) initially started as an online service for difficult to publish papers.
In comparison to the recruiters conversational clarity in phone calls, the interviewers performance was abysmal.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What attracted you to Plos-one and why did you apply ?
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at PLOS in May 2018
Interview
I applied for the role online and received an email inviting me to interview two days later. I had the video interview a week after I applied. I was informed I didn't get the position about a week later.
Interview questions [6]
Question 1
Talk about a time where you had to deal with a difficult customer.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at PLOS (Cambridge, East of England, England) in Apr 2018
Interview
The interview was ok. Applied online and was informed of the online interview in two weeks time. It lasted for 30 min. Was told to prepare responses to the job description, however the questions revolved mostly around how to improve the engagement of scientists with the published articles online.