South Pole Interview Questions
& Process

I had an initial interview with the hiring manager for this role. It seemed like they hadn't reviewed my resume or cover letter beforehand, and I got the sense they were doing other things during our call. If they had, they would have noticed I was coming from a different industry but had transferable skills. I tried to connect my experience to the role's needs, but it felt like we weren't on the same page. In hindsight, an HR screening call first would have been better, and I would have preferred being filtered out before speaking with the hiring manager. Overall, the experience felt quite disrespectful.

The interviews were held in October 2024. The first interview involved meeting two people who are based in my city. This was followed by a technical assessment focused on GHG accounting. The final interview was with more senior team members located outside of my country. All the interviewers were very pleasant and did a great job explaining the role, especially in the first meeting. I was told I'd hear back within a week after the final interview, but I had to follow up a few times. Eventually, I received a generic rejection email where the job title wasn't even correctly inserted. It was a bit disheartening because I genuinely enjoyed interacting with the interviewers.

Got the interview invite about a week after submitting my assignments. Two rounds of interviews: first with HR, then with the direct manager and another team member. Since it was entry-level, questions were mostly about my university experiences, like my undergrad thesis topic, and my first job. No case studies, but they did check my technical skills related to the job description. It was my favorite interview experience in 2 years - not intimidating, but efficient.

It started with a call from the recruiter, then a test. Honestly, it feels like they're not actually looking to hire for many of the roles they advertise. It seems like they're using the hiring process to get free consulting from skilled applicants. This 'exam' isn't really testing knowledge; it's more like giving them solutions to their internal issues. You put in a lot of time and effort with your answers, and then they don't hire anyone. They take advantage of people wanting to work for them, get all their ideas to solve their own problems, and then ghost them. I suspect these job openings are just a way to get free consulting. This feels like fraud.