GitHub Content Marketer Interview Questions
& Process

Before any real conversation or scheduling, there's a waiver to sign that could disqualify you. The initial recruiter chat was okay. The main issue was with the hiring manager interview. She couldn't clearly explain the job or what she needed. It wasn't clear from the job description at all. My advice is for her to talk to her team, find out their problems, and then work with the recruiter to write a better job description. For instance, the job said she needed a content strategist with instructional design experience in any field. But really, she needed someone specifically in B2B with software enablement experience. If that was in the description beforehand, I wouldn't have even applied. She also seemed unsure of what questions to ask, not having specific ones for the role. Managers should know their roles and ask relevant questions to check for fit. The absence of 'walk me through a time when' questions was a problem. She asked about my process for designing instructional content, and when I mentioned ADDIE, she acted like it was a foreign concept, showing she doesn't know much about instructional design. It ended with her saying it wasn't a good fit, but asking to connect on LinkedIn to watch my career progress, which felt odd and made me decide not to reapply in the future. To do better, ask the recruiter about the responsibilities before proceeding to save time and effort.

They were really good at communicating and got back to me fast. After I sent in my resume and cover letter, they told me I was moving on to the next step where I'd have to show off my writing chops. I ended up writing a few short articles and tweaking another one for them. Just two days later, they let me know they wanted to interview me. I had a video chat with the head of the department and someone who would be at the same level as me if I got the job. They were super friendly and fun to chat with, and the interview felt way more laid-back than others I've done. We had a great time talking, and they hit me with some questions that totally caught me off guard, like "What parts of the skills test did you struggle with?". They asked this a few times, making me think I'd messed up big time, but I honestly didn't find the skills test hard, so it was confusing why they kept bringing it up. I even asked if there was anything I missed that I should work on, but they didn't have my skills test handy, so they couldn't say. It didn't feel like they were asking because I actually made a mistake, but more like they really wanted an answer I hadn't given. It was a bit weird, but it was the only odd part of the interview - the rest of the time, they seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. They also happily answered my questions about growing my skills at the company. The next day, I got an email saying they'd decided to go with other people. I was pretty bummed - I thought the interview went well - but honestly, they couldn't have been nicer throughout the whole thing, and I'll probably try again.

I applied on the website and heard back from a recruiter two weeks later to set up an initial chat. Then there were four rounds, which consisted of ten total interviews with nine different people. These included the hiring manager's boss, a take-home test based on sample projects, a potential teammate, people from four other departments, the hiring manager, a second recruiter for a diversity interview, and then the first recruiter again. The hiring manager was the last of the main interviews, with the diversity interview and a final chat with the recruiter happening last. This whole process felt like a hassle and wasn't very efficient, which is a shame because GitHub claims to be candidate-friendly. In the end, a week after the final interviews, the recruiter called to say the hiring manager had changed the job description. She mentioned everyone liked me and would consider me for a contractor role if something opened up. So, I'm not a good fit as an employee, but somehow okay as a contractor? If the hiring manager had been the first main interview, like most companies do, it could have saved about three weeks of scheduling, prepping, and waiting for feedback after at least eight interviews. Another thought is that maybe the hiring manager or recruiter already decided I wasn't a fit for either the old or new job, but still moved me through the entire process, possibly for diversity numbers. I know I'm qualified with over 15 years of writing and editing for well-known companies, and I am from an underrepresented group, having experienced this before at other tech companies. It’s hard to think this, especially since everyone was nice, but GitHub's process was just too strange to ignore this possibility.