I applied through other source. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Springer Nature (Berlin) in Jan 2019
Interview
Very good interview! The person was quite polite and respectful. All the question were work-related and no pressure to answer. The interview mainly focus on leadership aspects and related characteristics.
I applied online. I interviewed at Springer Nature
Interview
Scenario-based interview.
* Provided with a clear and detailed scenario. Including the context, the problem, and any relevant constraints.
* Specific role playing.
* Asked open questions related to the scenario.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What kind of ways of working would I suggest to a very experienced engineering team?
I applied online. I interviewed at Springer Nature
Interview
- Phone interview with internal recruiter. Got a good overview of the role, and the impression that they were open to hiring from a wide range of backgrounds (i.e. with no formal publishing experience), which was good news to me, as I was looking to move from a different industry
- Interviewed with two senior members of the Product team. They asked questions and gave me the opportunity to ask quite a few, too. When I asked about the most challenging aspects of the role, they were very open about staff turnover and a team workload that was higher than ideal. When I asked how they were planning to address these challenges, they were honest in explaining they had solutions to some of them, but others were expected to last in the longer term.
- Overall, even though I didn't get an offer, it was a positive experience. All my interactions felt like two-way conversations, and I appreciated the openness to share more challenging aspects of the role. I felt I had all the information I needed to understand whether I could be a good fit of the role, and my conclusion was they were looking for someone more senior and more commercial, so the rejection didn't come as a surprise
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
As part of the interview, I got given a take-home exercise to present to the team. It was about defining an opportunity for a new revenue stream. Even though the instructions said the task didn't assume industry knowledge, thinking through it did require a lot of research into academic publishing, which to someone who has worked in the industry before may have been quicker and easier. It took me longer to do than a take-home interview task should (probably because of my lack of domain knowledge), though it was very interesting to research and create.