Tala Interview Questions
& Process

Had a phone screen with the recruiter about the role, then another call with the hiring manager where we went over my resume and talked about basic finance stuff and scenarios. The recruiter was super nice and excited, but the hiring manager was kinda quiet and didn't seem to love interviewing.

The recruiter was really nice and told me the process had 7 interviews over 3 weeks, so I agreed. It was going fine until the interview with the Product Design Manager. She didn't show up. I reached out and they asked to reschedule for the next day... and she didn't show up then either. They said she was sick, so we had to reschedule for the following week. The day before the interview, they messaged me to say the position was filled. It was a bad experience to reschedule more than once and then for them not to even take the time to finish the selection process I had already been in for 2 weeks.

This company has a 7-part interview process. It starts with an HR Interview, then a Hiring Manager Interview, followed by a Case Study, a Code Session, an Expectation Interview, and a Cultural Interview. Finally, there's a Background Check and a VP Engineering Data Interview. The good thing is everyone is friendly and professional, and you get a good vibe about the work environment from the start. The downside is some interviews are a bit vague, especially the Case Study. While case studies are good for checking creativity, critical thinking, how you communicate ideas, your thought process, and practical skills, they can be tough. Sometimes the problems are not clearly defined, leading to misunderstandings. Also, there's often a time limit, which might not be realistic for complex data problems. The case studies might also lack real-world context, making solutions less practical. Getting feedback after is also limited, which makes it hard to improve. Plus, interviewers might have biases, unfairly judging different but valid solutions. Lastly, case studies might not show all your data science skills, like teamwork or adaptability.

The process was really well organized. The HR person guided us through everything and set up the interviews and panel interviews. The team is very driven and they were flexible with scheduling. It's a team of highly motivated individuals with a talented product and tech team.