I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at LinkedIn (San Francisco, CA) in Oct 2015
Interview
I submitted my resume and portfolio when I applied to the role. Within a week a recruiter reached out to schedule an initial 30 min call. The next step was two 45 minute calls with Design Leads. My first call was kind of strange. I had a guy that spoke in a very heavy Indian accent and we had difficulty understanding each other. The 2nd call was really great. The design lead was very inquisitive and insightful. On both calls we reviewed up to 2 samples of work from my portfolio. They really want you to explain your design decisions and get a sense of your deign process.
I was moved on to the next round where I was given a design assignment. The assignment is open ended and helps them have a better understanding of your end to end design thought process and execution, starting from initial ideations/sketches/research all the way through to a high-fidelity mock. A prototype would be great, but won't win you any points if the design thinking is subpar. I was given a strict 5 day window to complete this task and submit one deliverable that illustrated my work. I ended up putting everything in to a PDF that told a concise story and walked them through my process.
They really loved my deign assignment. I was told this was the hardest part of the interview process and about 80 percent of candidates drop off at this point. I was moved on to the next step which is an onsite. I had to give a strict 1 hour presentation with a group of other designers in the room. I presented my design assignment along with 2 to 3 other pieces of work from my portfolio. You will want to make sure you stay with in the 1 hour window and also don't fall short. Designers at the Sr level present a lot to upper management and peers. They want to see that you have solid presentation skills and you can communicate and defend your design decisions clearly and with sound logic. Also, they want to see that you can take criticism and be able to collaborate which is critical in their design culture.
After the presentation you will do about 5 rounds of one on one interviews. It's pretty exhausting. I would say that the negative experience here is that they all asked the same questions. I felt like I had the same interview 5 separate times.
It took 4 days for them to get back to me. They thought I would be a great fit for a certain team, but they didn't have an opening on that team. This is what irritated me the most. They interview you for a role and then decide what position and team you would be the best fit for. In the end, I didn't receive an offer after about 3 weeks of interviewing. I did receive some great feedback from the recruiter, who was genuinely disappointed about the outcome. The feedback she gave was incredibly insightful which helped me critique some things for other interviews I had coming up.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
What were your reasons for deciding on this color palette for the UI?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at LinkedIn (San Francisco, CA) in Feb 2020
Interview
The design recruiter reached out to me via Linkedin and said they were interested in chatting about an opportunity. After updating my portfolio and sending it back, they took 2-3 weeks to decide to not move forward.
They could've done their due diligence to look at my profile and portfolio of work BEFORE they decided to contact me with some false/misleading sense of interest.
Quite ironic for a company that is based on helping people find jobs.
Do yourself a favor and interview at other bigger companies that have far superior design organizations like Apple, Google, and even Facebook.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Do you have a portfolio of recent work we can see?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at LinkedIn (Mountain View, CA) in May 2015
Interview
I have received a message by one of the recruiters via LinkedIn. Started with a smooth phone call with recruiter, followed by 2 screening phone calls with Senior/Principal Designers. Process followed by executing a design task, which I had to complete in the next 6 days. After review I was invited to an onsite presentation, where you backed up your thinking and solution of the task as well as presented yourself and your prior work. After lunch the day followed by six 1 to 1 with several more Product/Design team members. Generally felt really nice and smooth. People were honestly great, positive and excited about their work.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain the process. How did you come up with this solution. Why do you think this is viable solution?