I applied through college or university. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Block in Jan 2023
Interview
Hiring manager called me to informally tell me I would be moving forward with the take home exercise. Briefly explained what that would be about. Great. 2 weeks of silence and no take home exercise. Followed up a couple of times in this period. At the end, I got a rejection note, which is different from what I was told on the phone. I think this was a one-off, and not the first time I interviewed with Block. My overall impression is good. It's just this one that I think I wasn't treated fairly. Overall steps: 0) Apply online 1) Recruiter call 2) Manager phone screen 3) Take home exercise 4) Onsite
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Tell me about yourself - Tell me your most challenging accomplishment - (job specific questions about my background, 3 questions on it)
Met with recruiter, then HM, then did 3 hour case study building a model, then did full round of interviews. After all that the recruiter never got back to me on the outcome. I emailed him three times but no response.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Block (San Francisco, CA) in Jul 2020
Interview
Went through 4 steps including interviews and case study;
HR: General background/resume discussion
Hiring Manager: Introduction to role, resume/background discussion, past finance modeling experience discussion
Case study: Build a lemonade stand financial model from scratch, include assumptions, IS, BS, CF. This case study exercise is timed so you have to pick a 3 hour window within which you will deliver your final product to them.
Case study discussion: Walk through the logic behind the model and answer technical questions related to the assumptions used in the financial model. The conversation then turns from the basic lemonade model to how you would carry out analysis related to different aspects of the finance function like marketing, customer value, pricing etc. Its not too technical just basic math.
**The reason I gave the experience a negative rating is because they didn't have the courtesy to let me know if I was moving forward in the process despite my follow up. I was completely ghosted after the fourth step. Given I spent 4+ hours on the above four rounds of interviews, I thought it was quite unprofessional to not only not inform me of the decision, but not even do it after my follow up email. So if you value your time just keep in mind that you're dealing with a HR team that might drop off randomly and leave you hanging.**
