I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at REI (Seattle, WA) in Sept 2020
Interview
Phone screen in which the REI recruiter did not have a clear understanding of the role requirements and had not taken the time to review my resume. The interview was disjointed at best. The recruiter was confused about the type of experience/skills set that would have been a fit and asked questions that were more to help him better understand what experience might be appropriate. There was also some mention of requirements from notes evidently provided by the hiring manager which different than the requirements in the posted job description. Such a surprising and disappointing process. Makes one question how successful someone will be in that or any role at REI, if the interview process does not provide clear and full role requirements and cannot effectively identify and map the required experience and skills.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Various- on lines of what are doing now and what have you done?
Recruiter phone call - initial screening of application
Hiring manager - informal meeting, introduction, discussion of role and responsibilities
Panel interview - behavioral based questions in STAR format based on company core skills and competencies
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at REI (Issaquah, WA)
Interview
Applied for a remote position. Hiring manager asked me multiple times if I was fine with coming in for “1:1s and whiteboarding”. Really strange bait-and-switch, since the team members I spoke with weren’t even close to HQ and REI is “remote-first”.
Following the interview, radio silence for a month until the recruiter confused me for another candidate. Can’t say that’s something I’ve ever heard of.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at REI
Interview
Applied online and about a week later, I was asked to do a HireVue screening. After that I had an interview with a recruiter, followed by several other interviews across the span of a several weeks with different people on the team, in HR and marketing. The last interview was with the hiring manager. I had turned down another interview so that I could attend this one and spent several hours preparing myself. The hiring manager asked me one question, and then told me everyone had loved connecting with me. She then she told me she wasn’t going to offer me the position but that there might be a contract role on a different team that I might be considered for...... in a few months. She said it would be like an extended interview, so after 9+ interviews and several weeks later, they wanted to offer me a maybe position to test out my qualifications some more? I wish they would have told me this over an email so that I wouldn’t have missed out on the other opportunity. At the very least, now I know to avoid applying for REI positions in the future.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a program you developed that you are proud of.
