I applied online. I interviewed at Mellon Foundation in Nov 2025
Interview
Working with this organization was a long-held career goal of mine, and I was disappointed to encounter a chaotic recruiting experience.
Following my application, I was quickly scheduled for a first-round screener interview with a contracted recruiter. While there were some difficulties in scheduling this initial interview (mixed up dates that I had to correct), my experience in the interview itself was positive. I was informed I would hear of next steps from the Foundation in two months. When this time arrived, I received a voicemail from the recruiter asking to schedule a follow-up interview with members of the team, listing several dates and times. I immediately attempted to return the call, but was not able to be put through to HR by the Foundation's reception, who advised to respond by email instead. My email was not responded to by the recruiter and I received an automated rejection on the same thread two weeks later.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How did you respond to a challenge in your previous role?
Made it to "semifinalist round" where I was extended an offer to conduct zoom interview with a few senior program staff, but dropped out after accepting a different offer. This was after submitting a virtual interview, which was very intuitive and gracious in unlimited time to prepare answers before submission.
They have you do a video interview first. From there you move onto in person interviews with different team members. One of the final rounds involved a writing assignment to see how you would perform the job.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is one issue in the humanities you find really important right now?