This was for a tech art type position - a full time role with a listed salary of $99k - $149k in office in the San Diego Studio.
I was emailed a series of questions by an HR rep relating to my capabilities with software, programming languages, and other general HR questions. Was almost immediately told I got an interview. (this whole process was extremely fast moving and stressful).
The interview was scheduled within the week. I found out maybe two days before that it was a panel interview with multiple members of the team I would be working with, including my would-be boss. It was technical, rapid fire questions from all participants on the call relating to a programming language and 3D software. By the end, my would-be boss was going over particular software used on the job, of which I didn't have exact experience with (think: I use Maya and they were looking for Blender). They eventually started laughing and mentioned they should have read my resume better. Yikes. The call ended and I did not feel great.
To my complete surprised, the very next morning I was told I moved onto the next round of interviews. Cool. This was two back-to-back panel interviews with outside team leaders who I would be interacting with. These interviews went much more smoothly, but the questions were all over the place - some technical, some not-so technical, and others out of left field. Someone asked me about a complete other sector of work and if I could do that because they needed more help on something (think: being asked networking questions for a tech art role). I actually did like the folks on the call for the most part, but again, I was left with feeling like I wasn't prepared or taken very seriously (I was the only minority on the call, and also the youngest one by 15+ years).
Even more surprisingly, I got a call maybe an hour after that interview ended being offered the job. I could not believe it. I was also mentally drained from back to back panel interviews and not in the headspace for this call. Unfortunately my excitement on being offered a job with Playstation did not last long. I was confused why I was being offered the job because it felt like my interviews did not go great, and I was also confused what this role entailed after the last call. I stated the salary and that this was full time at the start of this post because what I was offered was a contract with pay much lower than the listed salary, still fully on-site in san diego, At no point in the hours of interviews was I told this was an option. The HR rep kept trying to sell me on PLAYSTATION and the san diego lifestyle, but I just could not realistically accept a non-salaried, no benefits, contract role in such an expensive area of the country.
