Well, that was embarrassing...Khan is developing a reputation for losing great talent and I can see why. The process is lengthy and fairly disorganized. I had an initial phone conversation with a member of the team followed by 3 other team members- guess what? All of them were former consultants and were not very interested in my education background. All of the questions they asked were "scenario based problems" that they were struggling with. Each time they put you on the spot to come up with "programs" or solutions. How often would this happen in real life? Would someone come up to you and say, "on the spot, right now- figure out how we get more kids to use KA for SAT prep". The other thing is that 2 of the interviewers were not 5...not 10...but 20 minutes late.
It's a shame- I was really excited about the opportunity to work at KA and clearly they have happy employees but they've got some things to figure out if they want to get some new talent to join the squad. If you're looking for your next job after working as a consultant, this is your place. Won't be reapplying here...
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
We're seeing dips in kids not using KA for SAT prep- design a program to address this.
How would you design a program to get more users?
Interviewed with recruiter, then business stakeholders and various members of technical teams. I was told repeatedly I was a great fit and that people were excited about my background. The direct hiring manager said I was an excellent fit and was mostly concerned about whether I wanted the role. Then I was abruptly declined for lack of technical skill -- which makes no sense because I have demonstrable technical experience in my current role, where I've done exactly what they need done. The whole process seemed hurried and bizarre and I felt my time was wasted.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Khan Academy (Mountain View, CA) in Apr 2015
Interview
I applied via employee referrals and did 6 phone interviews with 5 different individuals over the course of ~2 months.
The interview process was unstructured and opaque. The recruiter would send me an email asking me to submit my availability for the next week. She would then tell me the date and time of my interview and the first name of my interviewer. (At which point I would do the extra LinkedIn search to dig up position/title.) After the conclusion of an interview, I would wait to hear back from the recruiter, at which point I'd get an email congratulating me for moving on in the process and again asking for my availability. And repeat. 5 times.
Interviews tended to be quite similar, focusing on "how would you think about this problem" sorts of questions. Every individual I spoke with was polite, intelligent, and passionate about their work. But there seemed to be minimal communication between interviewers, and I didn't have a sense that the interviews were building on one another. Most asked me whom I had already spoken to and whether they had already asked me certain questions.
After two months, two employee referrals, and 6 interviews, I received a generic email from the recruiter informing me that I was not moving forward. She initially told me she could not provide additional feedback. Ultimately the hiring manager followed up with a short email a few hours later with feedback that felt like the professional equivalent of, "I have to wash my hair tonight."
A few hours after I received the impersonal rejection email I received an email request for donations from Khan Academy...
Khan is an amazing organization filled with smart, passionate, hard-working people doing great work... but my recruiting experience was a nightmare.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you approach this problem? If you had to do this in a limited amount of time and with few resources, how would you go about doing it?