I applied online early Feb 2020, the whole process took about 3 months. Due to COVID-19 outbreak, I did all my interviews through phone calls and video calls.
About 3 weeks after I submit my online application, I got an email from HR asking for my availability for a phone interview. I replied with my availability but got no response in the next 2 weeks. Then one morning, I got a phone call from Irvine, and it truned out to be the phone interview. Though both the interviewer and I were surprised that the interview time was not communicated, we agreed to proceed with the phone interview rightaway.
The phone interviewer asked a series of design related questions regarding current Blizzard games and games I worked on for my previous jobs. At the end of the 30 mins phone interview, I was told to complete a writen design test in 1 week.
The writen design test was sent to me immediately after the phone interview. It contained a number of detailed design questions that requires me to produce detailed designs, analyze existing Blizzard created contents and improve upon them. The answer document I produced ended up with more than 20 pages, 1 week timeline felt a bit tight for the amount of design work required.
About 2 week after I submit my writen design test, I received an email asking for my availability for an video call interview discussing my writen design test with the design team.
The video call interview lasted for 1 hour. 4 Blizzard designers asked me a lot of mostly design related questions. Some topics include my design approches when completing the design test, some potential problems with my design test answers and my previous work experience.
About 1 week after the first video call interview, I received an email invitation to a full panel interview. I was informed that this part of the interview would normally be an onsite interview, but due to COVID-19 outbreak, it had to be done through video calls. The full panel interviews consisted of 2 interviews each lasted for 1 hour.
The first full panel interview involved members from production and each art decipline, that included 1 producer, 1 animator, 1 character artist and 1 VFX artist. The main topic mostly revolved around inter-diciplinary collaboration, I was asked how I collaborated with otehr deciplines in my previous jobs. There were also a few design and personality related questions mixed in.
The second full panel interview involved 1 senior design manager, 1 technical designer and 1 engineer. The main topics covered my technical background, high level design thinking and personal characteristics. The design question asked in this interview were more abstract and generalized.
About 1 week after the full panel interview, I was asked to complete one last round of video call interview with the game director and a senior design manager. The interview lasted for 30 mins, main topic were again related to team collaboration and high level design thinking.
Shotly after the last round of interview, I received the offer from Blizzard HR.