I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at X (San Francisco, CA) in Apr 2011
Interview
I didn't hear a peep from anyone at Twitter for two months after applying. Someone from their HR department contacted me asking my availability for a phone interview in the coming week. I got back to them immediately with times, but I didn't hear anything from them for two weeks. Finally, I contacted the HR person expressing my continued interest in the position, and giving more times I could interview.
When I actually spoke with the hiring manager for the position, it became clear the posted job description on the website had very little to do with what the work actually involved. She described several obscene acts and used a jarring amount of profanity to describe the job duties; while I am no stranger to such language, I definitely did not expect to hear it in an interview. The other questions touched on my Japanese ability and my familiarity with intellectual property laws regarding images and music. The job description had just stated familiarity with intellectual property, and during my preparations I wasn't sure if this referred to patent law or various creative mediums. I kind of got the impression they had no idea who they were looking for.
The actual phone interview lasted around 45 minutes, and I would definitely describe it as unconventional. They seem like laid back people, but they also kind of seem like they aren't completely sure what they are doing. I got back to them asking about the status of my application after two weeks, at which point I received a rejection.
A month later, I received a rejection from them for a position I didn't even apply for. I cannot say this was a very positive experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Have you ever arbitrated intellectual property disputes between a corporation and an individual?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at X (San Francisco, CA) in Mar 2012
Interview
I went through three phone calls and one round of in person interviews.
First: A screening call with a recruiter - why are you interested in this position, what's your time line, etc. Very pleasant and straight forward
Second: A phone interview with a legal analyst on their team. He was great, very conversational. We discussed some of the challenges facing content heavy online companies and the interaction between policy, law and engineering in internet based companies.
Third: A phone interview with the hiring manager. She seemed primarily concerned with weather the position would be too junior and experience dealing with a ticketing system. She was interested in the ability to quickly learn new systems (have examples ready!), customer service experience, clear, quick communication, and the challenge of sometimes repetitively answering customer issues/tickets.
After these, I went to their SF office for in person interviews. Each interview was half an hour. The first was one on one with the hiring manager, similar questions to those over the phone. Then three interviews with pairs of people from the legal and brand policy teams. They are technically separate but work very closely together. There were a number of forward looking questions... what would you like to do ideally, type of questions. Then there was a final interview with the head of trust and safety.
On the whole, everyone was very pleasant. But they were looking for someone who all of them would like to have a beer with after work. The people I spoke with who had the position came from customer service backgrounds, not policy backgrounds. I doubt that anyone would have met their collective standards (they didn't end up hiring anyone over the next few months :))
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What non work related thing would you love to do more of at work. The head of trust and safety has a weakness for excel spread sheets and while it's not her strong suit she loves the chance to integrate them. They're all about personality fit for on site interviews, and it's not clear that there's a really good way to prepare for that.
