Received an interview after 1 week of submitting my application, which I really appreciate.
Spoke with a very friendly HR person and she followed-up with me within the time frame she told me. This was also pretty great. She walked me through the interview process, but this is where I feel I was led astray. I was told there would be another interview before a creative exercise was assigned. I really had ideas running through my head, but didn't think i would need to have them ready for my next interview.
I only got one step in and it was a Skype call with the city GM. I figured it would be a pretty straight forward interview and if that went well I would receive the "creative exercise." Instead the GM asked about it towards the end of our interview, for a different market than I was expecting. I think this is what eventually prevented me to move forward.
Received the generic email that they would not proceed the next day. Overall appreciate the speed of it.