I want to begin by saying that I think Riot Games is a company that creates amazing gaming experiences, and it employs a lot of talented, earnest people. Although my interview process was negative, I still admire Riot and enjoyed speaking with almost all the folks I encountered there.
That said, I ultimately withdrew my application from consideration for a couple reasons: I was offered a great position at another company, and the way the interview process was conducted worried me and made Riot lose a lot of its appeal as a possible workplace.
For convenience, here's a bullet-pointed breakdown of my experience:
• A few days after submitting my customized resume and cover letter, I reached out to someone in HR at the company whose blog posts I really loved. Although I had the skills and experience they were looking for, I think this was, as much as anything else, a big help in getting my foot in the door.
• I had an hour-long initial phone screening with a Riot recruiter who seemed like a great guy. It went really well: He immediately scheduled a second phone interview, this one with the man who would be the manager for the position I was applying for.
• The second interview took place a little less than a week later, on a Tuesday, and also went quite well. We had a fantastic rapport, and he was enthusiastic about my candidacy. The manager said that he wanted to get me into the "Writing Test" portion of the process as soon as possible, specifying that he would let me know the details of the Test by the end of the week.
• I didn't hear back by the end of the week, but that's par for the interviewing course. No biggie, I thought. I waited until the middle of the next week to follow up with the recruiter who was guiding me through the process.
• This is where, in my opinion, things began to go south in the process. I politely followed up again the *next* week; the recruiter went completely radio silent for 3 weeks. That in itself wasn't worrisome or anything; I know interviews always take longer than anticipated. But when the recruiter did reply, he said several things that were big red flags:
1. the company actually hadn't approved of a new hire when they posted the position (in other words, they were soliciting candidates for a job that might not exist);
2. the role was being "rescoped" (that is, it was being changed from what was originally advertised);
3. the recruiter would not answer my questions about two fundamental things: whether there really was a job at that point in time, and what changes were being made to rescope it;
4. the recruiter said the next step would be a phone screen with a manager, followed by the "Writing Test."
• It had been a while since my manager interview, so I politely reminded him that I'd already had and "passed" a manager screen, and that I was already approved for the Writing Test. Again, the recruiter never responded.
• Despite feeling wary, I went through with the second manager interview. It proved to be the deciding factor for me withdrawing my application. The man who spoke with me was, by far, the rudest, most condescending, and most unprofessional person I've ever interviewed with. He opened and ran the conversation with a steady stream of profanity (his opening words, with the profanity removed, were, "I'm sick as [a dog], so if I cough in your ear, try to deal with it”), went on to boast that, unlike those of his colleagues, *his* interviews were "[actually honest]. So, yeah, I really don't know anything about this position. But there's no way *I* would hire you for my team, but it's not my call, so whatever, let's do this, I guess." I don't want to get this man in trouble, so I won't go into specifics of the disparaging things he said about his organization, but suffice it to say I hung up feeling that, because of the chaos of the process, the uncertainty of whether there was even a job at the end of the rainbow, and the incredible unpleasantness of the final phone call, Riot Games no longer seemed like a good fit. When I emailed the recruiter to withdraw my application, I thanked him for his time and help, and offered to share some constructive feedback taken from my experience interviewing there. I never received a reply.
Again, I really do wish the company the best in the future. But if my experience is at all representative of candidates' experience as a whole, I think it is in Riot’s best interest to rework the rough edges of their process. That way, they can consistently recruit (and hold onto) the awesome talent they and their players deserve.
