Standard process. Recruiter -> hiring manager -> presentation -> another stakeholder -> VP.
For such a simple job brief, the process was generally a bad experience. They are pushing through as many candidates as they can and are on a time crunch but they could've managed this a whole lot better. Aside from the disorganised process however is how this entire process raised some big red flags of the company and their working culture overall.
Key things that stood out:
1. Weekend calls. In the current COVID world, some tech companies are requesting weekend interviews more and more from candidates, with expectations set with the candidates prior to scheduling. These guys though took it as a wholly acceptable practice and tried to schedule me in for 2 calls during 2 weekends.
2. Lack of respect. Point above can be understandable if they set the right expectations but they had tried to schedule these two calls during 2 weekends for pretty weak reasons. The interviewer for the
first weekend call apparently couldn't take 30 mins of his time during the week for a chat - fine. The second one, however, sent all the wrong signals. Even after it was agreed to have the call on a weekday, the recruiter reached out on a Friday night requesting to move the call to Saturday morning (the next day) because the interviewer will be on leave. That's forgivable but what isn't is the feeling they gave to the candidate that their candidacy is not worth their time to make their schedules work.
3. The recruiter. This was the final straw. Overall he's fine but the 2nd weekend interview he tried to schedule me in for, he asked that I, the candidate, reach out to the interviewer myself to schedule my own interview! Couldn't help but laugh at the level of unprofessionalism and disrespect to be prioritising his own time over a potential employee and it's when I decided to withdraw my application.
There are some genuinely intelligent people working here and some I would've liked to have worked with. But a recruitment process of a company can tell you a lot about their business and unfortunately, I was let down by the entire process.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at DataRobot
Interview
A bit long, but it was a good process for both to qualify each other and the opportunity. I met with the hiring manager, team members, senior leaders, different functions and lastly the CRO.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They hire based on the ICE criteria (Intelligence, Coachability, Character and Experience) - so make sure to showcase this
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at DataRobot (London, England) in Nov 2021
Interview
It was a really tough interview process, where I was never sure what to expect and exactly what the next step would entail - but it moved very quickly and I felt thoroughly challenged as a sales person - driving me on. A series of calls much like a sales cycle, where you are challenged to understand what the hirer is looking for, and then to share what is relevant about your experience to that, and then close them at the end of the call to get the next step.