Absolute waste of time.
There were two parts to the process. The first was an informal chat. I hadn’t applied directly for this role, I was approached after submitting a generic application, and the conversation itself was not what I expected. Very few questions were asked; instead, the interviewer mainly spoke about the role and the company. From the outset, I was transparent that I did not have prior product knowledge.
The assignment provided was very product related and as such was challenging, and required a significant amount of time to prepare.
Despite me clearly stating that I didn’t have product knowledge, a large portion of the second‑stage interview focused on product‑specific questions. Being asked questions they already knew I couldn’t answer. I was then critiqued for not being consultative in my responses which felt unfair and poorly thought through.
This left me confused as to why I was progressed to the second stage if existing product knowledge was effectively a requirement. It left me feeling that my time had not been respected.
The interview also included a role‑play exercise, but the level of rigidity applied to it didn’t reflect a team culture I would want to work in. I was critiqued for stepping out of role‑play to share some of my thinking whilst I was doing the exercise during the presentation.
On top of that, feedback was given during the interview itself. This introduces bias and creates an unnecessarily adversarial tone.
Overall, the process felt misaligned, unstructured, and ultimately an unnecessary use of time.