I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at RH (Cincinnati, OH) in Apr 2023
Interview
I was approached by a recruiter from RH on LinkedIn. She had viewed my work history and thought I’d be a good fit for an opportunity in my location. I met with her via zoom. The conversation went so well. We talked about the differences between design and customer engagement and the need to do both. We walked though my background and education. At the end of the conversation she expressed how much she enjoyed speaking with me and that she wanted me to take the next step by interviewing with the store manager. Later that week I did just that. I showed up in person and talked to the manager for an hour. At the end of that hour I was told that my hair and nails did not meet the guidelines of the company. That they require natural colored hair and nails for their employees so that clients can focus on the work and not the employee. This was incredibly disappointing. Especially since my LinkedIn profile picture clearly shows my very large purple hair. When I brought that to the store managers attention she admitted that they had seen the photo and it was an area of concern. I informed her that the job would work for me. The entire experience was a waste of time. The policy, although legal, is a micro aggression at its finest.
I applied through other source. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at RH in Jul 2025
Interview
A few interviews. All fairly simple though
Mostly quick screenings. Phone calls /texts at first before in person process. All very easy, introductions and then quickly jump into questioning which was always easy.
The role ultimately didn’t align with my needs
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Strength/weakness
Favorite designs
Why you want to work there
Willing to work 60hrs
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at RH (San Francisco, CA) in Dec 2024
Interview
Lengthy. The interview process is somewhat bizarre, as a design professional, the recruiter is usually someone with little or no design experience that works in customer relations. Once you get through the initial few calls, you’re given an assignment which you have a week to complete.
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at RH in Oct 2024
Interview
I started interviewing with RH at the end of October 2024 for various design related roles. The initial calls or Zooms were conducted by Associate Gallery Leaders that generally didn’t have any interior design or much furniture experience - rather retail ex Sports Authority, Gap, Zara etc. The call seemed to follow a formula of them introducing themselves and asking a few questions about the candidate. Some calls were engaging and others felt like they were going through the motions of part of their job description. After two months, submitting a week long design assignment, paying out of pocket to fly and travel for an in person interview, spending the Christmas holidays to relearn Autocad (Revit was not accepted), six interviews later, a VP whom I hadn’t spoken to throughout the two month process, deemed I wasn’t excited enough about answering the same questions over and over again and reviewing my “assignment” for the second time over Zoom to a very austere RH white panel backdrop. I should add, I have over eighteen years of being a designer and have held similar design management tiles twice - earlier in my design career. I found the entire process very inefficient and disrespectful of my time. I feel at the end, they decided my age was a factor as I seemed to check all their other boxes. Or perhaps it was because I asked how a restaurant patron is converted into a design client. The answer was to give them samples to take home with them. As an experiment, I went to five different RH locations in cognito and was not once asked any questions nor offered samples.
It appears to me, the new RH Gallery business model isn’t efficient - and probably isn’t a good fit for an experienced designer with an entrepreneurial spirit.
