EAB Research Analyst Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process included 3 phone interviews and 2 in-person interviews, along with some homework. It started with an HR phone screen where the interviewer seemed to read from a list and showed little reaction. A second HR phone screen was similar, reusing some questions. Following this were 3 case interviews, 2 relevant to the role and one that was quite odd. The case interviews were engaging, but during the in-person stages, one interviewer had a prepared list of questions and responses. Communication was poor, with unanswered messages and one interviewer being an hour late. The travel for the final 2 in-person interviews was difficult as an overnight stay wasn't approved, requiring very early arrival and late departure on the same day. The interview with the direct supervisor was scheduled last, and since it wasn't a good match, a significant amount of time had already been invested in the previous 5 interviews. Despite the mismatch, the response was a generic rejection email from HR.

An employee passed my resume along, and then I had a first round, half hour interview. After that, a second round happened which included a one hour phone interview and a 90 minute writing test. Everyone was super nice and polite. Since the role was quite different from my past work, they asked a lot about why I wanted to switch careers.

It does seem like a good company, but the process was so thorough and time consuming. First is a CCAT test, which they sent me almost immediately after reviewing my application. After a few weeks, someone from HR contacted to set up a phone interview. That went well/ was easy and they were really nice. Another HR person set up a 3 and half hour Zoom interview with two new interviewers. This was pretty intense. They proctor you as you take the CCAT again, which seemed stupid to me. There was a 30 minute interview with a research team member and she asked pretty standard questions (nothing super unexpected, but some stumped me a little). The simulation exercise was a little ridiculous. They give you some info and 30 minutes to prep before the interview. You are expected to give a research brief about a random topic and they ask you a bunch of questions. I thought this was really tough. The last part involved writing a professional email. I didn’t feel great about it all, especially the simulation excercise because it was so random and kind of relied on the applicant having some knowledge of market research. The worst part is they took their sweet time sending their decision even after I emailed them multiple times for updates.