I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Toast Inc (Boston, MA) in July 2019
Interview
The good:
damn, the HR/Recruiter(Rachel) was on it. Super high touch, organized, and honest. They moved fast, they responded in timely ways and were quite honestly one of the better HR/Recruiters I've interacted with in years. It went from online application to first reaching out in 4 hours, and every interview step was quick and well organized with clear goals. They were exceptional all around. Good communication and attitude from everyone on the recruiting team. Toast needs to give her a raise.
The bad:
They asked details about current salary which is actually no longer legal to do in Massachusetts due to the equal pay law. Oops.
They asked technical questions in a few interviews but it just didn't seem to reflect an even level of competence across the board. I expected better, tougher, and with more of a point. Gave the impression of not being entirely sure what they were doing in this space. I get the impression that they want to improve and that there's at least a little bit of awareness of this though. So maybe it gets better.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Lots and lots of culture types of questions, that seems like a critical factor for the company. Which didn't make sense considering they ended up wanting a more hands on and technical of a person in the end but along those lines their technical interview was actually extremely weak. Almost embarrassingly so.
I applied online. I interviewed at Toast Inc in May 2025
Interview
The interview process for this particular position consisted of completing a screening interview with the recruiter and then I was scheduled to interview with the hiring manager for a 30 min session.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time where you had stakeholders who didn't agree with the approach you were taking?
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Toast Inc in Dec 2024
Interview
I had an interview with the recruiter for this role in December. They called 5 minutes after our planned start and sounded distracted with home matters throughout. She was kind and provided a great overview of the company. Following the call, I sent a thank you note and did not hear back. I reached out two more times with no response. I finally received a standard rejection email this week after being completely ghosted for ~two months. This was my first time having an experience like this with a company, and I cannot recommend them to others.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard questions related to experience and expectations for the role.
I applied online. I interviewed at Toast Inc in Oct 2024
Interview
One of the best experiences of any company I've ever interviewed with from start to finish. Although it didn't work out in the end as they made some decisions to revisit the role, make some changes and start over, I was still impressed with the process. I had probably ~10 meetings over the course of 3 weeks with Toast meeting with the recruiter, executive talent team, talent acquisition, hiring leadership chain as well as key support people in the process. There were high levels of communication throughout the process. I was given an opportunity to learn about the culture and who Toast is during the process, which was great. All the interviews were "tell me about a time", but were very informal and led to open dialogue and conversation allowing me to be my authentic self. Other companies need to replicate this candidate experience. I put in a lot of time and preparation for the interviews so it wasn't the easiest experience and given how much time I spent on the process to be let down with the direction they went made it a bit of a difficult process, but this is the approach a company needs when hiring in a GM+ role. In addition to all of the above, they prep you on the interview and the themes so you can be better prepared. Interviews ranged from communication, collaboration, how you develop teams, change management as well as how you use data and innovate.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
How do you approach communicating with teams when change is necessary?
Thank you for taking the time to interview with Toast! Although this position wasn't the right match, I'm thrilled to hear you enjoyed your experience. I hope you'll keep us in mind for future opportunities!
