I did this interview over a year ago but I’m writing this because it still annoys me how terrible their interviewers were. I had a call with a nice recruiter followed by a an interview with two of their designers. The designers interviewing me seemed very junior and very conceited. I got the feeling that they had a list of answers they wanted to check off but didn’t want to have a conversation about different approaches to product design, which I always feel is a better approach to interviewing than just looking for answers you want to hear. My approach to interviews is always to kinda demonstrate how I have more than a surface deep understanding of different processes and concepts. So I’ll talk about my opinion, for example, on when you should or shouldn’t design mobile first and get into a conversation about it and similar topics that I’m frequently asked about in interviews. When I’m interviewing people myself it gives them an opportunity to speak and show off their real skills and how they’ve engaged with certain design problems. This doesn’t happen in Personio interviews. You get a question. They want a yes/no kinda answer. And they seem almost offended when you have a different opinion about an approach to them. As if you’re a threat to them, not potentially a person who could bring a unique range of experiences to the team. They don’t engage at all. Just look confused. During my interview I could see on their faces how much some of my answers had irked or challenged them and their very run of the mill approach to design and actually said “well look if you’re not open to working together to improve processes then maybe we’re just not the right fit.” They insisted on continuing but didn’t change their approach at all. I left assuming they would tell Personio that I wasn’t interested but they had the gall to email me rejecting me…after I had already rejected them. I was annoyed for Personio at how a flawed interview process can ruin a good interview. If there had been a Senior or Lead or even experienced designer on the call it would have been a completely different experience. I left with a very bad taste in my mouth about Personio as a company, about their design culture and about the position they had put those inexperienced designers in. I want to say that I’m not some spurned interviewee. This was the height of the tech boom and I had three offers within a week of my interview with them. So it had no effect on me other than I felt slighted by a terrible pair of inexperienced interviewers given too much autonomy.

The whole interview process was great. I was approached by a recruiter and decided to participate in the process. First we had a portfolio review which I really like the format, they were asking a lot of questions about my decisions and we had enough opportunity to discuss my work and make everything clear. Later I spoke with my future manager and had time to ask a lot of questions about the team and the overall structure. In the final interviews and I had the opportunity to meet some team members and talk to the CPO, all of them were very nice and knowledgeable. Between interviews, I spoke with a member of the talent team and she gave me very transparent feedback and also helped me prepare for the next interview. I felt appreciated and supported.