I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb (San Francisco, CA) in Mar 2015
Interview
I went through a couple of "sort-of interviews" before the final onsite interview. I first met with the design director and a lead designer casually at an event during an industry conference. Both were incredibly kind and made me feel very comfortable. A week or so later, I met with two designers and a recruiter at the campus where I showed some work and had more casual conversation. Finally, I had a more formal portfolio review on campus followed by some one-on-one interviews with various designers, design managers, PMs, Customer Service reps, etc. This entire process felt very seamless. The recruiters were incredibly diligent in following up, the designers were very informal but always asked very relevant questions, the non-designers provided great insight into metrics, how product teams work, etc. Overall, it was a very enjoyable interviewing process and I knew afterwards that I definitely wanted in if they were to make an offer. The culture of Airbnb is very apparent in the way they interview candidates.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There were a couple of questions regarding certain design decisions in my portfolio review. They were some specifics about type choice, color choice, aesthetic v. usability, etc.
Great, they made the entire process seamless and got back with an offer fast. Lots of rounds but they chunk it out and give breaks. No take home challenge. All the interviewers had specific areas to ask questions in.
1) A HR reached out via email to arrange for an phone call. She seemed extremely unprepared.
2) I was given a take home design exercise. They didn’t give me any feedback on the exercise or even taken the time to let me speak to a designer before I spent 5 days on a design exercise. Honestly I what are you all doing over there?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They didn’t ask me anything. I spoke to the HR for literally 2 minutes and she was the one that gave me the exercise.
I applied through college or university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Airbnb in Oct 2019
Interview
Campus Recruiting Event - Recruiter reach out after the event - Phone Interview with a senior designer- Onsite with three other designers. Process was efficient, basically doing the interviews every other weeks.