New York Times Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process is quite thorough. You'll have around 5-6 conversations with different people in the organization and on the team, which gives you a good feel for the culture, what the job entails, and areas you can grow. The main drawbacks are that they're really slow to give you information, let you know about next steps, and even if you get positive feedback, you might still get ghosted without any notice or rejection – just complete silence. They might eventually get back to you weeks later, but by then, most strong candidates have already moved on.

Applied via referral and heard back from a recruiter about a week later. The recruiter just read back the job description and said she'd pass it to the manager, expecting a response in a day or two. No response, so I followed up a week later with no reply. Three weeks after the initial call, the recruiter messaged thanking me for the call and asked for my availability to speak with the manager, without any apology. I provided my availability and had a call scheduled with the manager two days later. The manager seemed unprepared, pulling up my resume and thinking aloud about questions. When I explained my experience and tech stack, she argued about a specific tool's usage. She couldn't even discuss the tools her team uses. The 45-minute interview finished in under 30 minutes due to her lack of preparation and inability to ask more questions. Two days later, I received a rejection email from the recruiter; I wasn't interested in working for a manager like that anyway.

I first chatted with Jay Diep after applying for the Director of Ad Sales position. At the time, I was switching careers during a really tough job market. I didn't get the job, but my talk with Jay was actually a really big deal for my career. Jay is really good at figuring out people, not just if their resume fits the job. He can actually see the whole person behind the application. In our interview, he showed he knows a lot about hiring and also has a lot of insight, grace, and emotional intelligence. He paid attention, asked good questions, and gave helpful, honest feedback that felt both good and useful. Instead of trying to force me into a certain role, Jay suggested I think about jobs outside of sales, like in strategy. It sounds simple, but it really resonated. Strategy and sustainability had always been important in my life, but I'd never really thought of them as my main focus. His words made me think a lot. I looked at my experience differently and saw a pattern: I'm drawn to work that makes an impact. That realization changed everything. It gave me clarity, purpose, and the confidence to go after a career that truly fits me. Jay Diep did what the best professionals do. He saw me clearly, was honest with compassion, and pointed me in a direction that ended up changing my life. I'll always be thankful for that.

My advice is to not waste your time with New York Times People Analytics. The interview process was incredibly unorganized and unprofessional. First, the interview process spanned 5 months — essentially, I had one to two interviews per month. Second, I had to follow up with the recruiter at least three times per stage. Third, at every stage of the interview process they added an additional step or requirement that seemed like a surprise. Finally, I genuinely believe that the hiring manager is trying to grift knowledge and work from potential employees without any real intention of filling the position. There is a huge knowledge gap on the People Analytics team — neither the hiring manager nor any of the team member have any semblance of a background in analytics or people analytics. The hiring manager told me that they hired a contractor for a year in order to “shop around for talent” and “see what we could learn from them and then do it ourselves.” For example, they asked me to do a surprise case study in Tableau and send the Tableau workbook with details about all the calculations and visualizations. They ghosted me for two weeks and then told me that they actually aren’t going to fill the position right now… after 7 interviews over 5 months.