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      Rakuten Kobo

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      Related searches: Rakuten Kobo reviews | Rakuten Kobo jobs | Rakuten Kobo salaries | Rakuten Kobo benefits
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      Intern Interview

      Jul 17, 2014
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Toronto, ON
      No offer
      Negative experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten Kobo (Toronto, ON)

      Interview

      Very few pros, many cons. An HR manager reached out to me within a week of submitting my resume via a phonecall. Although she was fairly scattered (she forgot to specify the time or with whom the interview was going to be - I had to ask before she hung up), the initial communication was pleasant; she seemed nice and open. To plan, I researched the company, the departments, industry, internship role, etc. and felt fairly confident in my knowledge going into the interview. The building itself was quite nice as well and had a cozy vibe. The interview itself was a completely different story. From their end, the appeared completely unprofessional and unorganized. Three managers interviewed me (only one of them was an HR manager), and for a lack of better words - it felt like I was being interviewed by a group of frat boys. The three of them were more interested in sharing inside jokes and appearing "cool" than they were in the interview itself. It was CLEAR that they hadn't planned the questions in advance because they'd take awkward, long pauses to go "uh...um..." before coming up with a question that was completely left-field, random and unrelated to the one before. The manager who had initially contacted me wasn't as bad but the two others were rude and made no effort to make me feel comfortable either. They looked unbelievably bored and and kept chuckling in between answers when they'd share an inside joke that I was not privy to. I am making no exaggerations here, this actually happened. I guess there's a first for everything. I suppose managers forget that not only are they interviewing possible employees the process works two ways - I had no desire to work for them after the interview was over. However, by far the most absurd part of it all was that during the interview - they didn't ask ONE question about me, my personality or my educational background. It was all about how much I knew about Kobo, the industry and the market trends. How does that make sense? While I was prepared for this, I thought an interview was about getting to know the potential employee, not how much the potential employee knows about the market. It was as if they were playing around with me, to see how much I knew until I was caught off guard. Another clear indicator that they had come into the interview completely unprepared and were winging it. Very glad I didn't look back after leaving the interview. Not an environment I'm dying to work in, thanks. The company is clearly run by little boys (fun fact: HQ has no female representation) who were randomly promoted and then pumped with ego. VERY disappointed in Kobo's culture, was expecting different from a "hip, young and book-loving" organization. I would tell those interviewing for Kobo to be VERY CAUTIOUS. Those who interviewed me were condescending, to say the least. Another word of warning, Kobos are becoming obsolete anyway. There is no way that Kobo will continue to outpace Kindle and other e-reader/tablet sales in the future (lack of R&D and growth ops.) and their loss of profit can be seen in the way that the company is falling apart. I had an insider view; this is a company that is struggling to stay relevant, as proven by profit margins and corporate culture itself.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      The whole interview was unexpected. Probably the most unexpected thing was that they didn't ask questions about me. They were more interested in hearing what I knew about the company. Felt like Kobo is what they probably fantasize about in bed.
      Answer question
      4

      Other Intern Interview Reviews for Rakuten Kobo

      Intern Interview

      May 13, 2024
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Rakuten Kobo

      Interview

      There was a technical portion and a behavioural portion to the interview. The technical part was based around javascript. Overall, it was doable, and the people in the interview were all very nice

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Tell us about the last project that you worked on
      Answer question

      Intern Interview

      Nov 16, 2022
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      No offer
      Positive experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I interviewed at Rakuten Kobo

      Interview

      The interview process was pretty straightforward. After applying I was met with a phone call, and immediately got an email stating to set a second interview and then a video call with the hiring manager.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      Tell me about yourself and why you chose to apply for the company
      Answer question
      3

      Intern Interview

      Jan 21, 2018
      Anonymous Interview Candidate
      Toronto, ON
      No offer
      Neutral experience
      Average interview

      Application

      I applied online. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Rakuten Kobo (Toronto, ON) in Jan 2018

      Interview

      Was called in for an interview, thought it went fairly well. The two interviewers were engaging and friendly and asked interesting questions. I was never contacted afterwards - pretty unprofessional.

      Interview questions [1]

      Question 1

      What kind of content do you interact with on a daily basis?
      Answer question
      avatar
      Rakuten Kobo response
      8y
      Thank you for your interest in Kobo! Our standard process is to inform all candidates who did not make it past the interview stage via email. It appears we experienced a glitch in our system. We have looked into the situation and have corrected it for future candidates. We hope you will apply for future positions here at Kobo!

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