Whova Product Designer Interview Questions
& Process

I had an interview with one person. They were nice, but the interview felt a bit unstructured and disorganized. I wasn't really given a chance to talk about my personal skills or the company, and was mostly asked very specific questions about my resume. The interviewer seemed more interested in the type of people and settings I worked with previously, rather than the actual work I did.

I had a first-round interview for a full-time Product Design job. Two people interviewed me, and it felt really disorganized and kind of off. They didn't even introduce themselves or talk about the job or team, they just jumped straight into my resume. A lot of the time was spent questioning if my past experiences were legit, especially since they were from nonprofits and small companies, not big, traditional tech places. Instead of seeing how my background fit, they mostly talked about why I didn't have big-tech experience and how my career path stacked up against people from bigger design places. I tried to answer everything calmly and professionally. One interviewer was kind of aggressive, twisting my words to sound like I was putting down other paths or companies, which wasn't what I meant at all. I get that interviews are about checking if you're a good fit, but it felt really dismissive and condescending, like I had to defend myself instead of having a real conversation. That whole vibe made me decide to pull out of the hiring process after the interview.

It’s been almost a decade since I wrote about a candidate or job experience on glassdoor, but this was bad enough to share. The process began abruptly with a direct jump into the HM round. This was followed by a design challenge, which is common. However, during the portfolio review, I was taken aback when, without any prior notice, I was presented with a closed-book quiz. Team members simply watched me type my answers, making me wonder if they had ever considered the ‘interview experience’. I found this approach to be pointless and disrespectful of the time and effort I had already invested in their design challenge. The questions they asked during the case study presentation were unthoughtful and irrelevant. Furthermore, the team appeared to lack passion for their work. They should really understand that an interview is a two-way street. This experience left me with a negative impression of the company and its culture. I hope that future candidates will be treated with more respect and consideration.