12th Tribe interview questions

Review: I went through an extended interview process with 12th Tribe for a Technical Designer role, and the experience exposed significant issues in both hiring practices and internal structure. The interview process was unnecessarily long and drawn out, with little respect for candidate time. It included a Zoom interview, followed by a one-week gap, then an in-person fit test, followed by two separate work trial days spaced a week apart. After that, there was a two-week delay before references were requested, followed by another week later asking for an additional (fourth) reference. Throughout this entire process, there was no clear timeline or sense of decision-making urgency. It felt like ongoing candidate comparison rather than an effort to hire. During one of the work trials, I was told I would be meeting with the founder. By the end of the day, I had to ask whether that meeting was still happening, only to be told she was too busy. This aligned with other feedback I’ve since seen about leadership being somewhat dismissive of candidate time. From a technical standpoint, the department lacks structure and consistency. The current fit technician appears to come from a design background and, while doing their best, there are noticeable gaps in technical knowledge and process. Basic fit fundamentals were inconsistent — including uncertainty around pinning strategy and how to properly diagnose fit issues. In particular, there seemed to be a lack of understanding of the relationship between vertical and horizontal balance in garment corrections (especially in pants). At times, I found myself explaining concepts, but ultimately you cannot compensate for foundational gaps at a departmental level during a trial process. Additionally, the technical design infrastructure itself felt underdeveloped. There was no strong sense of standardized blocks, consistent POMs, or a scalable system for managing fit and grading. This creates unnecessary friction for what should be a highly structured role. Overall, the experience felt less like a professional hiring process and more like prolonged evaluation without commitment. Candidates should be aware of the time investment required and the lack of clarity throughout. Advice to Management: Define a clear hiring process with fewer stages, respect candidate time, and invest in building a technically sound and structured development foundation. Without that, it will be difficult to retain strong technical talent.