Damen Shipyards Group Interview Questions
& Process

The interview was very friendly and relaxed, though a bit confusing because the interviewer switched out last minute. They explained the organization thoroughly (very well organized) and shared some insights about the project.

The HR department is the highest point of contact. I got a call to check on my status, though an email went to spam. The interview itself was over Teams and with a top-level person. It lasted 45 minutes and got very positive feedback. They explained the tasks and what they're looking for.

So I had a good first chat with the manager and HR, and then a week later, they invited me for a second interview with two other people. That one also went well, and I thought they were positive too. But then Damen just stopped communicating after that second meeting. A week passed with no word. Towards the end of the second week, I tried calling HR multiple times, but no answer. Even tried the recruiter, but also no response. In the third week, the recruiter finally called me back because he saw my missed calls (after HR had apparently asked him if he'd heard anything from me...). He then told me they weren't going to proceed with me (which I kind of guessed after they ghosted me). When I asked why they couldn't just let me know properly, he couldn't give a real answer, just admitting it was bad that they went silent. He agreed with me that it was rude and unprofessional. As for feedback on why I was rejected, it was contradictory and mentioned things that weren't even issues in the first interview. He said he'd check with HR and call me back the next day. But the next day, he said he'd asked HR and still wasn't any wiser, admitting he didn't really know. The feedback he got from both interviews was actually positive, with nothing negative that would prevent them from moving forward with me. I thought this was absolutely insane. But what was worse was that HR themselves never contacted me and apparently think it's okay to ghost candidates. So rude and unprofessional!

The recruiting process was very drawn out and had really bad feedback loops. So many automated HR messages that you can't reply to. If you do get a dedicated recruiter, communication is really poor, it feels like a one-way street with no coordination on scheduling appointments. HR is also great at ghosting candidates after interviews and not answering phone calls. With the supposed "labor shortage" in the Netherlands, it feels like it doesn't exist for this company because of how they act. They don't have a proper process for engaging with candidates; it's all automated through an HR tool. This hiring experience is one of the worst I've had in my career. As many reviews on Glassdoor show, this seems to be a common issue across the board. So my advice: don't waste your time on Damen Naval and don't spend money on travel (fuel/hotels) to Vlissingen for Damen.