The interview itself was pretty straightforward and I don't recall there being any questions that were out of the ordinary for this type of position. In addition, the person I spoke with was really lovely and I appreciated the way it was all conducted. There were actually two, fairly similar positions of which I applied for both because, why not. Things went well and I was essentially offered one of the positions about a week later, which I was thrilled by. I say essentially offered as there was a small caveat. In their response, they stated they wanted to leave some time before starting the second position and so asked if they could reach back out to me further down the line, in about 2-6-ish months. That was absolutely fine with me and so I thought starting the job was a formality and I just had to wait out the time. In the meantime, I offered to do some freelance work. After doing a few bits it was left at the business not needing any more help at the time but they would reach back out if anything else was needed. After waiting for 6 months (4 since the last contact), I thought it appropriate to follow up to see what was happening and was informed they didn’t remember how things were left. I was pretty shocked. And the reason I was given they no longer wanted me was that a blog piece I wrote took more editing time on their side to condense and make it easier to understand, which bemused me for a number of reasons. Partly because I wasn’t given any kind of rough word count to aim for, partly because it met the reading level standards they were looking for as I made sure to verify via two programs. Also in part, because I even asked if there was an expectation that the article needed to follow the existing format and was told there was no need to stick to a certain format. I also thought if there were any concerns it wouldn’t have ultimately been accepted or at least accepted while explaining they would do the editing but I would have been happy to edit further had I known. They did ask me to do one round of editing after I first submitted it. The criticisms were fair enough. I submitted a few errors but I was burning the candle at both ends working late to get this done on top of my day job and my family and in my tiredness submitted with some errors. In addition, I think the actual content was good stuff and the final published piece used most of what I wrote. I worked hard late into several nights to try and understand the capabilities, features and benefits of the product offering and even contacted a competitor anonymously to ask more about their product’s capabilities when I couldn't find the information published publicly. The reason given was frustrating but also pretty depressing because I could have met the formatting requirements if I was clearer on quite what they wanted those to be. It seems there isn't much room for making any missteps. Ironically, the final published piece omitted a few items I thought needed to be included. One was the omission of several keywords I was given in a list to include. The other was cutting out entire sections I added that they didn’t typically include in a blog post. I was originally pointed to a competitor’s blog article as being a good example of what they wanted. I took this in part to mean the inclusion of comparable sections in the post I was working on. The final piece also references a competitor but uses the wrong stylization of their competitor’s name in every mention. I was careful to get this correct as it’s a subtle distinction. Perhaps, looking back I should have asked more precise clarifying questions up-front but I felt clear on what was needed and it also shows the importance of having a clear brief from the outset. Overall, there wasn’t any point I was explicitly told I was no longer being considered for the role. And the issues mentioned seemed to me rather easily fixable, it was just about both parties having a clear understanding of the expectations early on. In the end, it left me feeling pretty depressed for a few days and it still plays on my mind, especially as I had just wasted 4 months no longer looking for work and realising that I could have saved myself a whole load of stress and seemingly even my position for the job by not going out of my way to show how keen I was by taking on more work. I pray whoever ends up in this position has a fulfilling time as I believe they probably would do and I know the person I liaised with is a great person but unfortunately, lack of clear communication meant I was left thinking I had a job that I didn't really have.