The initial interview was great. I met with the recruiter via a Microsoft Teams video call, and the interview itself was pretty easy. The recruiter answered all my questions, and I was excited about the job. It seemed to check all the boxes: flexible work hours, great salary, etc. The next step in the process, before moving on to the 2nd interview, was to complete an editing test. And this is where things took a turn for the worse. I've taken editing tests before, and they usually only take about 90 minutes. Maybe 2 hours. But not this test. I was sent a 25-page chapter, plus several pages of notes and background information on the project. They gave me a week to complete the test. I started working on the chapter right away. But after a few hours into the test, I realized I could easily spend 25+ hours editing the chapter. The content was very poorly written and structured. At that point, I decided to stop editing the chapter. I took a few days to think things over and ultimately decided to withdraw my application. This experience was a red flag for a few reasons: 1. Asking applicants to spend more than a few hours on an editing test is excessive. 2. The quality of writers you would be working with at ATD are poor. The sample test was a raw, original chapter from one of their published books. The only way a sample as bad as the one I saw could have gotten publication-ready is if the editor practically ghostwrote the material. I don't believe the author has the writing skills to make the necessary revisions, which tells me the burden of rewriting that chapter must have fallen to the editor. Once you reach a certain level of reworking the text, it's no longer editing. It's co-authoring or ghostwriting. 3. I believe a manuscript in this condition should have been rejected. Part of the publisher's responsibility is to hire skilled writers. This experience tells me that ATD hires bad writers and expects their editors to pick up the slack. This is a waste of editorial resources, and it indicates that the press is badly managed with low standards. Overall, ATD's expectations for the role were not in alignment with what I'm looking for. I'm glad I realized this early in the process.