employer wants me to write 30 essays before they’ll even consider my application — Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

I’ve done my fair share of job interviews, but not in the past five years or so. In early August, I applied for a manager-level role at a local nonprofit that fits exactly within my professional experience and personal interests. Almost four months after the application deadline, I finally got an email back, telling me that instead of doing a traditional first-round interview, they were asking all candidates to fill out a questionnaire.

The questionnaire is about 40 questions, 30 of which require paragraph-level responses and span the usual “describe an experience that illustrates how you adapted to feedback” to my experience in specific tools/frameworks to “what [my] initial priorities and strategies” would be if hired. I included my copy of just the long-answer questions below. I estimate this would take at least three hours to do if it was a verbal interview, and potentially 10 hours to type out. And … they gave us a week to complete it.

Based on the wording of the email, I suspect they haven’t winnowed down their application pool at all yet, so I may be dismissed out of hand for not yet completing my degree. To me, this feels extremely inappropriate and borderline egregious – and not to their benefit, either! Surely it is more work to review pages and pages of responses rather than the resume and cover letter candidates submitted already, and many strong candidates will have already gotten a job or won’t think it’s worthwhile to invest all this time in an application without ever even talking to an interviewer.

Should I bother replying to ask whether my application meets their basic requirements? Should I not invest too much time in the survey, and assume I will be one of the few who even reply at all? I love the work of this nonprofit and have several friends-of-friends who work there already, and I’m baffled by what feels like a clear misstep from an organization that prioritizes equity and accessibility.

The questionnaire:

Please answer each question thoughtfully, as your responses will help us learn more about your experience and suitability for the role. This will serve as the first round of our interview process. Selected candidates will receive an email invitation for a second-round interview following our review of the responses.

1. What specifically interests you about working at ___? Can you share what attracts you to ___’s mission and values?
2. What do you know about ___’s work and why are you excited about the possibility of joining our team?
3. If you were hired, what are your initial priorities and strategies for strengthening our evaluation and learning capacity?
4. Can you describe your experience designing and implementing comprehensive evaluation plans, including data collection, analysis, and reporting?
5. What evaluation frameworks or theories have you applied in your work? How have they influenced your approach to designing and conducting evaluations?
6. Can you discuss a specific evaluation project where you used a particular framework or theory to inform your methodology?
7. What data collection methods are you proficient in (e.g., surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations)? How do you ensure data quality and reliability?
8. Have you conducted asset-based community development assessments or similar evaluations? If so, please describe your experience and the impact of your work.
9. How do you incorporate asset-based approaches into your evaluation practice to highlight community strengths and resources?
10. If so, could you provide an example of how you have used this approach in your work?
11. Can you describe your experience as a Principal Investigator or lead on a federally funded research grant, such as NSF or NEA?
12. Have you been involved in the development and submission of proposals for other major funding agencies, such as NIH, DOE, or private foundations?
13. What specific challenges and opportunities did you encounter in securing and managing these grants?
14. Can you discuss your experience in managing budgets and financial reporting for federally funded projects? How did you balance the demands of grant writing, research, and project management responsibilities?
15. What strategies do you use to stay updated on current funding opportunities and trends in your field?
16. What specific MERL tools and techniques are you familiar with?
17. How would you approach training staff on the principles and practices of monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL)?
18. How would you ensure that staff are using MERL to inform program decisions and improve outcomes?
19. Can you share an experience that exemplifies your ability to take initiative?
20. Can you share an experience that demonstrates your ability to collaborate effectively?
21. Can you describe an experience that illustrates how you adapted to feedback?
22. Can you give an example of an experience where you asked insightful questions to achieve better outcomes?
23. Can you share an experience of how you’ve worked effectively in fluctuating or chaotic situations?
24. Can you provide examples of how you have incorporated principles of inclusivity and intersectionality into your evaluation designs and data collection methods?
25. How do you ensure that your evaluations are culturally responsive and address the unique needs and experiences of diverse populations? What strategies do you use to identify and mitigate potential biases in your research and evaluation practices?
26. Have you managed anyone previously? What is your leadership style?
27. Can you describe a challenging experience you’ve had with a previous supervisor? What made working with them difficult for you?
28. Can you share an experience with a previous supervisor who brought out the best in you? What qualities made them an effective leader in your eyes?
29. What is your superpower?
30. What questions do you have going forward?

This is so ridiculous that it’s practically offensive.

Frankly, most of these questions on their own would be inappropriate to assign as a writing project before the employer had done any screening of the applicant pool. (I’d exclude questions 1 and 2 from that, since those would be fine to ask people to address in their cover letters. Although those are basically the same question and, as if they weren’t already abusing your time enough, they apparently want you to answer it twice.)

It is not reasonable to ask people to invest this much time in an application process before the organization has done any screening of its own (so that people know their candidacy at least has some promise) and before candidates have had a chance to ask their own questions to determine if the job even makes sense for them to pursue.

And this is indeed a huge amount of time to ask for. This would be an unusually long list of questions even for an in-person interview! To expect people to spend time writing out answers to all of them — something that takes most people far longer than answering questions out loud in a conversation — no.

I’m sure the organization believes this will save time on their side — since they can review people’s answers on their own schedule rather than having to set aside time to talk with people — but it’s incredibly disrespectful of their applicants’’ time.

Moreover, it’s setting them up to lose their strongest candidates, since people with other options are really unlikely to bother putting in the time to do this.

It’s also a really bad sign about how the organization is managed overall. I’d bet money that if you talk to those friends-of-friends who work there, you’ll hear horror stories that have nothing to do with hiring.

As for what you should do … I’d respond that you’re not able to spend the multiple hours it would take to complete the questionnaire, especially without having a chance to ask your own questions yet to determine if the job is even a match. You could add, “This is surprising choice from an organization that prioritizes equity and accessibility.”

That will probably take you out of the running, and that is an outcome I’d be comfortable with.

You might also talk to the friends-of-friends who work there and ask what’s up with this; you might hear something interesting (like maybe that it’s a new system they’re trying out and no one else is playing along either), but more importantly they should take your feedback back to whoever decided to hire this way.