I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Block (San Francisco, CA)
Interview
Short screen call with a recruiter, followed by another screen call with the hiring manager, then an onsite day with several team members. The entire process took about two weeks.
The good: If you've interviewed with some of the bigger brands in the valley then you know that some of them have real jerks on staff. Square did not look like that at all - I interviewed with some of the nicest people you can probably find in SV and I'm happy to recommend interviewing with Square in that respect. I also have several friends who work there and had similarly good things to say. The hiring manager seemed to be junior but with a good attitude.
The bad: The interview process was confused and misaligned and the recruiter took zero accountability for it. I applied for a new product role and the title was changed from product to engineer halfway through the hiring process, after the onsite interviews had already been scheduled. I actually only learned about this by accident and was not notified by the recruiter. The two roles are just vastly different. The recruiter assured me it was semantics so I gave the company the benefit of the doubt and interviewed anyway but it was a mistake. I felt uncomfortable discovering in the interviews that my concern was real and the team had little interest in my more recent work experience, and basically suffered a misunderstanding of what I was told I was interviewing for. That part was just unprofessional and probably cost me the option to interview for a different role I would actually be a good fit for.
The ugly: The recruiter just didn't take any accountability for the confusion. The feedback that got from the team through the recruiter also demonstrated that nobody bothered to clear up the confusion afterwards and the confusion was pinned on me with no clarifications from the hiring manager.
While the interview process was not as unpleasant as with other companies, it still ended up being just as ridiculous. I'm crossing Square off my list for future role. No thank you.
7
Block response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to interview with Square. It's really important for us to have clear communication with our candidates from start to finish, and we missed the mark here. We will be taking this feedback seriously in order to prevent this from happening again.
Besoin de trent mots minimum alors il me faut un peu de créativité. On me demande de donner des avis bidons pour pouvoir utiliser l'application... je comprends la motivation mais c'est absurde.
Standard product interview that consisted of the following:
Recruiter Screen
Hiring Manager Screen
4 interviews with Xfunc teams + product sense + analytics case
Final presentation
overall, was on the easier side out of interviews that I've done.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There were Case questions.
Behavioral/Star Questions.
I was initially excited about the opportunity and appreciated progressing to the second round of interviews. However, after that point, communication with the recruiter became inconsistent. I was left unclear on whether the role was still open and, despite follow-ups, never received a clear update or closure.