R/GA Designer Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Dec 2009 in New York, NY (took 1 week)

I applied online and then was asked for a group/panel interview. They were running a bit late, about 20 minutes, and it would have been nice if they had acknowledged that, but they didn't. Still, that is common for ad agencies so no big deal.

The office seemed nice, modern, open spaces. However, as soon as the interview began, it felt very chaotic. Many of the people I was supposed to meet with were not able to make it, and the ones that did interview me seemed to be a bit confused about who I was and why I was there.

We also had difficulty in communicating, as they seemed to only want to ask me about things that were a) unrelated to the job function, or b) overly complex theoretical questions that almost anyone would have problems answering without advance preparation. It felt to me to be more of a process of them showing how much more they knew than me, rather than getting to know me as a person, or if I would fit in. So in that way, I felt the interview was a bit pointless. In a word, the whole interview was extremely awkward. I was not able to say or ask 90% of what I wanted.

I would say that 25% of the people I spoke with were very nice and seemed to be genuinely interested in the interview process and finding good people, while the other 75% were a bit distracted and not wanting to be there (as evidenced by their disengaged body language throughout the interview). Overall, I felt very disappointed because it seemed that I was never really given a chance to have a good interview because the process they used was so flawed. They promised to get back to me, and I have been waiting now for 3+ months. Obviously, I didn't get the job. But to communicate that would have been professional, not to mention courteous.