thoughtbot Interview Questions
& Process

It was a 3 round interview process that lasted 2 weeks. First round was a non-technical interview to talk about my Rails background. Second round was a consulting interview with non-technical and technical questions about a hypothetical application we would build with an imaginary team. No trick questions or white-boarding. The third round was an on-site interview with two parts. In the morning, I had to pair-program with someone on a feature for their internal tooling in the language I applied for. In the afternoon, I did some pair-programming exercises in a language I wasn't familiar with.

It was a collaborative process, you're rarely working alone. Since it's for product design, expect to tackle a product design problem! You should also have web experience – designers need to be proficient in HTML and CSS. It was nice having someone to guide you and point out flaws in your design approach. I personally prefer this way of working, so it was actually better than working on something by myself. It didn't really feel like an interview, more like chats with people about your approach and background. The only nerve-wracking part was talking to Chad the CEO on the phone, but since I didn't know it was him, I didn't get anxious.

I interviewed back in August. First up was a video interview with the CEO, Chad. Then, a second video interview with the CDO, Kyle. They both seemed really interested in my background, what I'm looking for, and my career aspirations. After those calls, I was invited for a full day working session at their Boston office. The morning involved a Q&A with the Boston Design Director. The afternoon was dedicated to a project and presentation, which was open to anyone in the office. The project was quite a challenge, and the final presentation was also pretty tough, but they definitely gave me a lot of autonomy throughout the whole process. Unfortunately, after that intense day and some waiting, I didn't get an offer, but I did receive some valuable feedback from the team. Overall, it was a really positive experience, and I'd love to give it another shot in the future. The team seemed like a great group to collaborate with.

They first invited me for a technical interview. But when I tried to schedule it, they told me I had to do a phone screen first. Turns out, their first email was sent to the wrong person. The phone screen was pretty standard. Then they officially invited me to a technical interview scheduled for the next week. However, less than 24 hours before that interview, they canceled it via Google Calendar and informed me that the position had already been filled and the role was closed.