I applied for a UX role and was lucky enough to have someone boost me in, which is why I think their career website's timeline on What the interview process was going to be, was misleading. I bypassed the first 30 min call and went straight into the testing evaluation. They test you on culture fit and math. Then you are given a date for an interview. On their career portal timeline, it should be a personal story interview, but I was blindsided by a portfolio review. There were two people on that call, it was clear it was stuck in the middle of their workday, and it was unclear who was leading the interview. As it was the first human I spoke with from the company, I was expecting more background/banter/explanation, but it was clear they were just there to rate me. When I informed them I was under the impression it was a personal story interview, they were quick to say no, so I went through with the portfolio evaluation. It was alienating/ very silent. Other interviews I've been on with similar companies, there was more empathy from the designers that were evaluating me, questions along the way about process, or situational questions. But it was mostly silent with the Shopify crew.

I had an initial call with a recruiter where they asked me about my life story, which I wasn't really expecting so it took me a bit off guard. My recruiter also wasn't the most friendly so made it a bit strange. Then I guess you go straight into the finals which was just three sessions. One a portfolio review of one project with just one person, a chat with a manager, and then a whiteboard exercise (still using the design a one-button alarm clock). These sessions were fine but I didnt feel like I had the opportunity to really share my experience. I dont feel like I had enough context going into the interviews (ie - sharing one case study versus 2, how many people were in the interviews, etc). My recruiter was a bit curt and unresponsive at times so I felt like i was just being pushed through the process for the sake of it and that no one actually looked at my work prior or had any context prior to the three final sessions.