I was invited to interview for a product design summer intern position. HR told me that I would have two, back to back 45 minute interviews and that they would make the hiring decision based off that. The interviews were conducted over Skype. Both interviewers were unprepared and out of the loop– they didn’t know anything about the intern hiring process and hadn’t been given any interview training. My first interviewer was nice– they had done their research, looked at my portfolio, and had relevant questions to ask me. The interview was very casual and relaxed and felt more like a friendly conversation. I’m fairly certain that my second interviewer was high out of their mind. The first thing they told me was that they had “no idea” what they were doing and that they had never conducted an interview before. They kept looking all around the room, waving to people in the background, and spacing out of our conversation. They basically just had me ramble on about some of my past projects (they hadn’t bothered to look at my resume or any of my work beforehand). The interview felt clumsy, awkward, and unprofessional. By the end of the two interviews I didn’t really feel like Uber was a place that I would fit in or enjoy working. I got the impression that the company was extremely large, disjointed, and didn’t know how to handle itself. Advice to management: Take the time to train your interviewers and provide them with more details about the hiring process. Make sure that they’re capable of presenting your company in a positive light.

The interview process typically includes an initial screening call, followed by a portfolio review to discuss past work and design thinking. The final stage consists of multiple 1:1 interviews and a collaborative whiteboard or problem-solving exercise.