Pew Charitable Trusts Associate Interview Questions
& Process

I went through 3 rounds. First, HR screening. Then, two rounds with the team for technical and behavioral interviews. The team was great and organized. However, HR was not. The recruiter was often late or missed calls and ignored my emails for days even when I needed urgent answers. The worst part was that they didn't consider my immigration status, even though I disclosed it. They have a policy against hiring non-US permanent residents, even with work authorization, and didn't mention this on their careers page. HR realized their mistake after a verbal offer was made, and it had to be rescinded. Pew's program staff are great, but HR is disorganized and inflexible.

Applied online and had a phone screening with HR after a couple weeks. Then, an in-person interview with the hiring manager and another senior manager happened soon after. This interview was split into two parts: 30 min of general interview questions, and then we did some exercises on reading graphs. I should have looked at their publications before, as that's mainly where they pulled questions from. The second round of in-person interviews surprisingly didn't include the hiring manager. Instead, it was with the head of the entire department for one half and senior associates (plus one) for the other half. I didn't get the job, although they put me "on hold" for several weeks while they made their final hiring decisions. I later found out they hired from within, and one of the people they hired had interviewed me! It felt a bit shady.

There was 1 phone screening and three rounds of interviews. The first was with the direct supervisor and a team member, the next with another team member, and finally, with leadership. Everyone was pleasant and seemed nice to work with. They gave great context on the office culture and the role.