This was bar far the worst interview process I've ever encountered. A red flag immediately popped up when the first call was with the hiring manager. The recruiter call was skipped. It also took weeks to hear back from the recruiter via email. When I did hear back, it wasn't a response to a previous email, but was completely out of context, almost like none of my other emails were even seen. Highly unprofessional and unorganized.
I continued to the next round which was a design review/presentation. This was in-person, with the hiring manager from the first interview call, and two other product designers. The team was rude, unorganized, actually swore a few times while making small talk, and neglected the entire presentation I had prepared for them. Their small talk also left me awkwardly sitting there uninvolved in their conversation about what they had for dinner the night before.
As for my presentation, I was constantly interrupted, and was asked to go far deeper into defending and explaining my designs than what was appropriate for an interview (nondisclosure's exist and they obviously are not experienced enough to know this), and also what was described in the recruiter's email.
My overall impression of this recruiting process was so so poor. Slow, lack of intent, and inconsiderate of candidate's time and other opportunities.
My impression of the team was just as poor. They claim they are past the start up phase financially as a company, yet the interview proved this product team to be exactly what you get with a start-up.
-limited skills, but they are unaware of this. They think that because they have worked on one product for several years that they know everything because they've designed every piece of it. There are highly complex products in the industry that none of these designers would be able to understand or design for because they have blinders on
- their understanding of how the industry works is sub-par. They base processes and ideas off flashy trends and buzzwords. Following industry trends doesn't make for lasting teams or companies.. I felt like I was looking up 'product design' on wikipedia and a photo of this team appeared.. generic and unimpressive.
-product design process sounds very baseline and basic. their expectation seems very linear for every project. This must be a waterfall working environment as opposed to agile or lean.
- lastly, interview etiquette, and communication skills were the worst I've ever experienced. When you interview as esteemed places like Facebook, Wayfair, Hubspot etc, they are educated enough to respect your time, the work you've put together to present, and don't interrupt you midway to ask things you 'just haven't gotten to' in your presentation. Patience is important in large working groups, and these designers displayed none of that.
