The interview was for an industrial design intern position. They reached out via email and we set something up very quickly. I chatted with the senior/lead industrial designer for around 30 mins over Zoom. Said they were still interviewing candidates but it has been a few weeks and I haven't heard back from them yet.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Chatted about my portfolio. Had time to walk through 2 projects.
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Pensa (Brooklyn, NY) in Jun 2022
Interview
Had a prescreening then moved to next round. Got sent a slide deck of prompts and technical questions, had a few days to review, then presented answers during the interview. Took around 1 hour total for technical interview
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What considerations would you have when designing an outdoor bench?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Pensa (New York, NY) in Jul 2019
Interview
Before my interview and during the application process, I was excited to learn more about Pensa. As far as I could tell, they had a nice, unpretentious culture and had done a lot of great design work.
I had a video call with one member of the design team and one design manager (at the same time) where we ran through my portfolio and talked about my previous experiences and how their studio runs.
The one team member was very nice, but I recall the design manager seeming disinterested and somewhat impatient through the call (who knows, maybe they were having a bad day).
I was also surprised when this manager told me that their studio wasn't too interested in how an Industrial Designer might execute all the details in the design process, but more in the front-end research and thinking. I am aware that this is important too, but it seemed odd to trivialize the actual development process (and this was not the feeling I got when I looked at their website and projects).
They told me to give them an email in a few weeks so that I could tour the studio and have an in-person interview. I was still interested, so I followed up with them. Strangely, I never head any response after that, and I was pretty sure my reply didn't go to their spam box, since we had been talking previously. Yes, people are busy, but ghosting after an interview is poor behavior.
The experience was a let-down since I was initially excited about Pensa and the role, but because of these points, I did not follow up with them a second time. It looks like they are hiring (again), so maybe they have some turnover issues.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked about how I worked and contributed on some of my previous design projects. No specific curveball questions.