I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Niantic (San Francisco, CA) in Sep 2020
Interview
The process took over 6 wks.
I was reached out by a recruiter. They gave me a design test with multiple stages.
Then I talked to the design lead to go over my thinking process for my past work.
After that, I talked to the team members (engineer, designer, artist and a GM) and they asked my each about my past experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
-Tell me about your past work
-What's the most challenging thing for an AR designer?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Niantic (Bellevue, WA) in Mar 2021
Interview
The initial correspondence email took a while but once we started talking, things went very smooth and moved really quick.
The Recruiting team is very helpful and supportive with answering questions regarding the process and interviewers!
The first round was a Game Design test for Pokémon Go which touch multiple aspects of the game and was very interesting! (Honestly the best test I have given for a job interview process). It had a 48 hour time limit but they were willing to extend if required.
The second round was a call with a Lead Designer and it was amazing to see how passionate they were about the game and we had a really good conversation! This round was within a week of me submitting the test.
After a few days, I heard back and we scheduled a “virtual-on-site” over two days. I had 5 interviews split up over 2 days. It involved bunch of Lead PMs, a UX Director and another Lead Designer. Great passion and diversity in the interview panel. They were short interviews(30-45 minutes) and the interviewers definitely had checked my resume/portfolio/experience. We didn’t spend too much time on intros but rather had some design and process discussions and of course enough time for questions at the end.
After a few days, I heard back I cleared the round and had last two rounds with a Senior HR Manager and VP of Games. Again, super passionate individuals and had a great time speaking with them.
I heard back in under a week after these rounds that I had an offer(yay) and then we discussed further details.
Overall, the process took about a month from the first test to getting the initial offer! Very passionate folks who really care about their mission and strive hard to work towards it. The recruiting team is fast to schedule and get back to you with answers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Process and Design questions - Can’t go into more details because NDA