I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at RMI (Washington, DC) in Nov 2021
Interview
Process consisted of 3 short 30-minute interviews plus a take-home assignment presented to different people. First interview was with someone from HR, which was great if short. I was a bit bummed there was not more time for me to ask the interviewer questions, but I told myself that I would have the opportunity later.
I was then given a take-home assignment as part of Round 2, where I was given 4 calendar days to read an article, write a 2-page memo, create 3-4 slides, and then prepare a short presentation on the slides. The assignment laughably told the candidates it shouldn't take more than 3 hours to finish. Instead, I put off my grad school homework and ended up doing the takehome assignment all weekend. I put maybe 12 hours towards it. I needed to do extra research to say something intelligent because the topic was outside my usual area of knowledge.
The second interview was a presentation of my assignment, which was just barely long enough and I didn't have a chance to ask any of my questions. This was with a manager at a different team.
The third interview was with a manager from a manager from the team I would be hired into. Again, there was not enough time to ask my questions. I wanted to ask about RMI's work life balance, hours flexibility expectations, and remote work policies.
However, I definitely understood by the end of the interview process how RMI values its employees time, which seemed very low. The take home assignment was a huge lift dumped on us with no warning. And not a single interview was long enough for me to interview *them* as to whether or not I actually wanted to work for RMI. My interviewers did not make a good case that RMI is a good place to work for. I understood that if I worked there, my superiors would not respect my time and didn't have my best interest at heart. At the end of the day I did not receive an offer, but I don't think I would have accepted one if I had received one.
I applied online. The process took 2+ months. I interviewed at RMI (Boulder, CO) in June 2023
Interview
I was invited for a phone screen 3 weeks after I applied. This was a typical phone screen. I was then invited to interview with the team I would be working with. This involved typical questions about my experience with behavioral questions. The team was great to talk to and it genuinely felt that the conversation was a two-way street. After following up with the recruiter about two weeks later, I was invited to complete a take-home project on a very quick turnaround. Like all the other reviewers before, it's stated that the project should take no more than 3 hours, but I spent the two days I had making sure the assignment was my best possible work. It was a 3-part assessment with a mix of technical questions and a case study which required a short writeup. The technical questions were not challenging but it still took time to perfect. I was really interested in the case study questions and I did a lot of research as I was very excited about the position and the subject matter. Over a week later, I followed up with the recruiter about the status, and was invited for a final round interview with a panel of managers. This interview was similar to the first team interview with behavioral questions. At this point, there seemed to be a major disconnect between the team members conversations with me to the managers who were interviewing me about my qualifications and experience. It could have been the long time gap between the two interviews, but I interpreted this as being disinterested in me as a candidate at this point and going through the motions. Beyond the second interview, I had to initiate all interactions with the recruiting team. It was frustrating to start feeling as if I was being interviewed to fill a quota. Two weeks after my final interview I hadn't heard anything and emailed the recruiter. I was emailed the next week and told they had already gone with another candidate. The amount of time and effort spent on this process, including finding childcare on short notice to complete the assignment, leaves me feeling disrespected when there is little to no communication well past the expected timeline. I understand that the hiring process can be frustrating and lengthy, but RMI's process, speed, and communication is sorely lacking. The entire process took more than two months.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Behavioral questions (what if x, how would you go about it)
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at RMI in Feb 2023
Interview
Only attended a short phone interview where it seemed like the recruiter didn't know much about the position. I was offered a follow up interview and scheduled it but was later asked to reschedule. Scheduling the first one was already difficult enough with my current job as the interviewers did not provide many available times. After considering my experience in light of other reviews, I declined to reschedule and discontinued the interview process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell us about yourself and why you are interested in this job
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at RMI
Interview
Had a first interview with two members of the team which was fairly casual. Then about 1.5 weeks later scheduled the second interview with the higher up members of the project team. After several weeks of hearing nothing, followed up with HR and received no response which I find quite rude.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would you find most challenging about this position