Drop Interview Questions
& Process

I had a phone chat with the recruiter first, then the hiring manager. The recruiter call was good and covered some basic stuff. After that, I had a phone chat with the hiring manager. It was supposed to be 45 minutes but it was only like 10/15 minutes long. The hiring manager seemed kind of stressed at the start and then rushed through my interview. They ended the call after I asked about 3 or 4 questions. If I hadn't asked, the call might have only been 5 minutes long. I messaged the recruiter the next day to find out about their timeline since they didn't tell me. Within an hour, I got an automated rejection email from their system. It would have been nice if they'd at least had the decency to email me directly and explain why I was rejected. If this is how the HR team communicates, you can probably expect the same from the rest of the company.

The interview process was quite long. In total, I spoke with 7 employees. It started with 2 phone screens, which were pretty straightforward with direct questions. They seemed really focused on whether I understood their product cycle and business model, as this question came up in all 7 interviews. The in-person interviews were intense. I was there for 3 hours straight, with no breaks, meeting 5 different people back-to-back. I think a panel interview would have worked better because I was asked the same questions repeatedly. I started to lose steam by the end of this long string of questions, and I think that hurt my chances. One interviewer tried to ask how I'd choose between two products to put on the site, but he phrased it in such a long, rambling way that I couldn't figure out what he wanted me to decide. He even lost track of the random conditions he made up for the question. It was weird and annoying. After they actively recruited me for 2 weeks, I heard nothing after they brought me in for 3 hours of interviews. I feel like the least they could do is reply to my follow-up emails with a response, even just a 'still deciding', after taking up a big chunk of my workday.

The Massdrop interview process was pretty involved. It kicked off right after I submitted my resume online. I got an email that same evening to set up a phone interview. The first call felt like a real chat, not just someone reading questions. After that, I got an evaluation document with about 5 or 6 detailed questions to answer. Once I sent that back, I had a second phone interview, which was a discussion about the evaluation with the first interviewer. Right after that, I had a quick third phone interview with another Massdrop employee, which was also conversational. Once the phone interviews were done, I was invited to their San Francisco office for an in-person interview. I met with three different leaders from Massdrop throughout the day. These interviews happened back-to-back at different cafes nearby. We’d walk from the office to a cafe, chat over coffee about the company and the role, and then head back for the next one. After all the interviews, I went home and waited to hear back. Even though I didn't get the job, I thought Massdrop and their employees were great. The interviews were comfortable and not off-putting at all.

The interview process involved an onsite interview, a writing sample, and then another onsite interview. During one of the onsite interviews, there was a 20-30 minute test. It wasn't tricky, but the time pressure made it a bit tough. The recruiter and head of operations seemed nice and smart, but the interview and interview coordination process felt a bit disorganized.