I applied for the position in June 2025 but I figured that I would not hear anything due to the popularity around working for the CDC Foundation. To my surprise, I heard back from someone on the hiring team at the end of September 2025. I booked a 30-minute screening call within a week of that email which went well. I think I was asked basic interview questions, such as "Tell me about yourself!" and "Why do you want to work here?" That same day of my screening call, I was asked to complete a writing assignment within 24 hours. Around 2 weeks later, I finally heard back and scheduled an interview (I believe the final interview?) with some of the hiring team the week after (end of October 2025). Unfortunately, I was told the morning of my interview that hiring would be paused for the holiday season and that the application would reopen January 2026 with interested candidates to be interviewed in February 2026. I sent a follow-up email to the team in January 2026 to get more insight, but it was not until the beginning of February 2026 that I was told that the leadership team decided that position was no longer needed as the current team as able to complete the workload. I was really disappointed as I was told that I was considered a strong candidate. Honestly, I believe that the Trump Administration has complicated a lot of grants/contracts in the public health/healthcare sphere and it probably played a role for this position (e.g., the hiring freeze this position experienced).

The interview was fairly simple. It was with the manger and another employee on the same team. The questions were typical behavioral type questions. Not very difficult or nerve wracking.