I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at mpb.com (Berlin) in Mar 2025
Interview
The interview took place in two stages: an initial online interview, after which I was called to the Berlin office. I was greeted cordially, but then the in-person interview took a negative direction, in my opinion trivial questions were asked in a provocative tone, furthermore, the interviewer seemed to be somewhat disturbed by the fact that I am a content creator and insisted many times that the position was not a creative job.
The position has been open since at least the beginning of April, and is still available, maybe they are looking for more people, or maybe the selection criteria are questionable.
I applied a second time about 5 weeks after the first application because I saw that the position was still open and received a prefabricated email informing me that I had not been selected for the first interview, not even two hours after applying, all this despite the fact that I have extensive and demonstrable previous experience with photographic hardware.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
In summary, I was asked whether:
1) I had a sense of duty in fulfilling professional commitments.
2) If I knew what KPIs are (of course I did).
3) A very specific question, i.e. whether I thought I was capable of preparing at least 38 cameras per day for sale (which is a very reasonable number, since once you get the hang of a preparation process like the one needed here it takes an average of ten minutes per camera, in every hour of work so you can easily prepare at least six cameras), emphasizing this point a little excessively in my opinion.
4) I was asked if I realized that with time the work tended to become repetitive (I said yes, but that it was interesting for me anyway).
5) They asked me if I had any questions in particular, perhaps this was the weakest point of the interview, as I had researched the company beforehand and had few questions.
Finally I was taken on a tour of the workshop, cool and well organized, really a pity I was not selected.
The first interview was a pleasant experience. The interviewer was kind and engaged, though they didn’t have answers to some of my questions and said they’d pass them along for the second round. Unfortunately, the second interview was disappointing. No one showed up to the originally scheduled Zoom meeting, and when it was rescheduled, the interviewers arrived late. The questions asked were very surface-level and didn’t reflect much preparation.
The two men conducting the second interview were noticeably haughty and disengaged, giving the impression that they weren’t particularly interested in the conversation. At one point, they asked whether I had experience with cameras — which I do — and when I followed up by asking if training would be provided to deepen that knowledge, I was told it wouldn’t be necessary since they have a pamphlet for that and any detailed questions would be handled by another department. Overall, the process felt disorganized and dismissive, leaving a poor impression of the company’s structure and communication.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What camera knowledge do you have?
Tell me about yourself and what is your previous exp.
Es war ein wirklich entspanntes Interview mit Fragen zu mir selbst, meiner Arbeit als Fotograf und was ich über Fotoausrüstung weiß. Wenn ich Probleme habe, Ziele zu erreichen und wie man im Team arbeitet
