New Engen Interview Questions
& Process

The first few steps of my interview process with New Engen/Donut Studios went perfectly well, until I made it to the 3rd or 4th round—the next step was going to be a take-home assessment but I was told that they had to temporarily pause on interviewing to address a company-wide backlog of work and internal planning, and they'd be in touch within a month or two to resume. When they finally did reach back out to resume, I replied immediately confirming I was still interested in the job and to send over the assessment. They then NEVER got back to me, no matter how many times and different methods I tried—I emailed my HR point person several times and messaged them directly a few times on Linkedin, I emailed their general inquiry inbox, messaged their LinkedIn page, nothing. Incredibly frustrating experience to have to pause the process, be told it's resuming, and then get ghosted immediately after, and beyond unprofessional on their end.

I received an email about a month after applying in October, and the whole process from the initial screening to the last round took about a month. The recruiter contacted me the next day after the first screening to set up a meeting with their SVP, but it ended up being with someone else without any explanation. Then, the next day, I had three interviews back-to-back, which were the final stage. These interviews included behavioral/critical thinking, values, and a situational interview focused on marketing problem-solving. I liked how quickly they scheduled everything, and everyone I talked to was friendly and seemed happy there. The three people in the final interviews had all been with the company for over 4 years, showing it's a stable place. It took exactly 7 business days to hear back after the final round, which is pretty standard. The recruiter did ignore my text and email for a day before responding. They do explain why they rejected you if they don't move forward. A few things I found a bit off were: 1) It felt like three of the five people I spoke with got their jobs through connections (one person's spouse was in a higher position), which made me uncomfortable. 2) For an entry-level role, they were really vague about what the job actually entails. I was okay with it, but it's good to be aware. 3) In the last interview, I was asked to explain things I felt I had already explained as much as possible, which was frustrating.

First, I had a screen call with a recruiter. Then, I moved on to a second interview with a manager. After that, there was a third loop interview with 3 other managers. Most questions were straightforward about my experience and how I would fit in with the culture. Everyone was very nice and it felt easy to have a conversation with them. My only real complaint is that this process took 6 weeks.

So I applied for an Account Manager role at Acorn, which is now part of New Engen. First, I had a recruiter call to figure out my availability. I followed up a few times, but they said they were waiting on Acorn. Months later, I reapplied to a similar listing and got contacted by two people to schedule a Zoom call. There was some confusion, but I got it sorted and booked the interview with one of them. The interviewer seemed to like me and asked for my availability for the next step. I sent it over, but then... radio silence. I followed up three times and still nothing. Honestly, a rejection email would have been nice.