MasterClass Creative Director Interview Questions
& Process

This was a dream job, but turned into the worse recruiting / hiring experience I've ever had. I interviewed back in 2018, but recently saw them post a plethora of new jobs which prompted me to write this review. The company botched the experience so badly, I actively tell all my colleagues to avoid Masterclass like the Plague. The process is fraught with disorganization and a lack of communication which can be attributed mostly to their recruiting department but bleeds into the general culture of the company as well. People from the recruiting team were late to interview calls more than once and required constant nudging to keep the process moving. Ultimately after a 3-month process that involved 2 phone interviews, 2 video calls and 3 in-person interviews in LA, I was offered a contract for a more junior role than I applied for—which I still happily accepted. The details about the job were vague as I was told "it's still being worked out." Compensation was going to be $35-$45/hr. Fast forward 4 days: I get a call and am told there was some internal confusion—the responsibilities of the producer role have changed, and the job I accepted no longer exists. Dumbfounded and dejected, I canceled my Masterclass membership that day and vowed to never work with or apply to a company who treats their applicants half as bad as Masterclass does. Quite the shame because before this I was a customer and a fan, but lost all respect for the work they do after being so mistreated. Don't waste your time with this company.

I had a phone screen that wasn't very thorough. Then, I was given an assignment: create an outline and description for a MasterClass course taught by an instructor of my choice. The task involved explaining the choice of instructor, listing 10 chapter titles, and proposing 2 sub-chapters. I know two other people who went through this process for this role, which was open for about a year. We also had to sign an agreement that gave the company ownership of our work, meaning they could potentially develop these courses based on our ideas. All three of us were rejected without any feedback or explanation. In one instance, the assignment was completed, but no in-person meeting or detailed interview followed. It felt like they were asking for unpaid work and for us to sign away our creative rights to it. Seemed like dodgy interview practices.

It was a super thorough, project-based interview process that spanned a few months. I met a ton of people at the company. It was totally worth it though. They really wanted to see how creative and collaborative I could be.