Carrot Fertility Interview Questions
& Process

The interview was pretty typical. Started with a quick call with HR to review my resume and chat about the job. Then I had a 45-minute chat with the hiring manager to go into more detail about my background. After that, I got a take-home assignment which was basically a fake RFP with questions to answer using info from their website and public sources, with the rule not to use AI for answers. I had two days for it. Once I submitted it, they asked for my availability for the final interview, which I think would have been with someone already doing the job. But then they never set it up, even after I followed up when the scheduling window passed. Over a week later, they emailed to say they weren't moving forward, even though they'd initiated the final interview stage. They offered to discuss their decision and asked for availability, but then they ghosted me again, not calling at the scheduled time and not responding.

It was an okay interview process, but it ended badly and unprofessionally. I had 5 interviews over a couple of months, from May to the end of July. After two interviews, they told me they'd found someone but were interested in me for future roles. A month or so later, they contacted me again, and I had three more interviews. It felt like a team fit interview, and nobody could really explain the role or what a typical week would be like. It seems like they're still figuring out this role, as mentioned in other reviews about its ambiguity. 5 interviews over a couple of months is a lot of time and stress, especially in this job market. My main frustration is with the recruiter. Before I even heard if I got the job, she sent an email to rate the interview process, which felt weird to do before knowing the outcome. I had to ask her about it and got an automated rejection. This echoes the issues with ambiguity and disorganization. After both the second and fifth interviews, I got an automated rejection, and the recruiter followed up saying they know interviews are a time commitment and decisions aren't made lightly, offering a follow-up call for feedback. Each time I agreed and asked how to schedule it, she never followed through. The second time, I even mentioned she didn't follow through the first time and that I really wanted feedback, especially since I got so far in the process and the job market is tough. She said she'd circle back, I said okay, and never heard back. This happening twice is unprofessional and disheartening, pointing to organizational issues. I know these calls can be risky for companies, but don't offer feedback and then drop the ball. It soured the process and made me feel like I dodged a bullet with this ambiguous role. If anyone cares, there needs to be accountability for this behavior, or at least stop offering feedback calls. The company's mission is great, but read between the lines of employee satisfaction reviews.

Echoing other recent review(s) that Carrot touts a noble mission but doesn't treat candidates with basic dignity. Over the span of 2.5 months, I went through all interview rounds for my role. Communication was minimal, and little/no context was given re: the format of each round (for a technical role, it’s typical to get a heads up about how technical each round is). At the end of the recruiter screen, they said they’d enjoyed our convo and would send a link to schedule the HM interview “in 30 minutes.” I still hadn’t received it the next week and emailed to follow up, receiving no response. I assumed they’d lost interest (or finalized another offer) and ghosted. But 3 weeks later, they resurrected out of nowhere with the scheduling link, without acknowledging my previous emails. I then proceeded through the rest of the rounds, including behavioral rounds, a take-home project, live coding, a prepared presentation, and a panel interview. Prior to some rounds, I emailed asking for basic clarification on the format + deliverable, but these emails were all ignored. After the final round, I was told the team would be deliberating and I’d receive an update on [date x]. I happened to receive a formal offer from another company at that point, so I let them know; that email never got a response. [Date x] came and went with no update. I emailed a few more times to follow up, emphasizing the response timeline my competing offer needed. No acknowledgement of either the existence of my offer or my emails themselves. Weeks later, I finally got a form rejection email (of course, I’d already accepted the other job). In the email, they said they understood the process had taken a lot of time and they’d be willing to get on a brief call to share feedback. I responded that I’d appreciate feedback, and unsurprisingly got no response. They did have the audacity to send me an email (+ another automated follow-up) asking for *my* feedback though. :) :) :) Btw >3 months after I sent in my application, the job post is still up. TL;DR: A comically bad interview experience. Lack of communication + respect towards candidates reflects internal team dynamics. Carrot is unserious about hiring and is losing qualified candidates to competitors.

The first part was a pretty technical chat with the recruiter, where I got a good sense of the job and what they're looking for. Then, I spoke with the hiring manager about the company culture, their tech setup, and how a data team member typically interacts with others. I didn't get the job after that, and the recruiter was upfront that it was because someone else was further along, not necessarily because of my background. Lastly, I had a final call with the recruiter who gave me some helpful feedback, which I really appreciated.