TL; DR All e-mail correspondences were friendly, helpful and timely, and every Rioter was more than willing to provide and receive feedback upon request. 5 Nov: Submitted Application 8 Nov: Response Received 15 Nov: (Skype) Phone Interview #1 with recruiter (55 minutes) 26 Nov: (Skype) Phone Interview #2 with hiring manager (57 minutes) 1 Dec: (Skype) Phone Interview #3 with team member (36 minutes) 8 Dec: Follow-up Phone Call with recruiter (10 minutes) I applied online for a job at the Santa Monica office and heard back 3 days later to schedule my first phone interview with a recruiter. I was in South Korea, and later Hawaii, but the recruiting team was very good about working with me to firm up a time and conducted the calls via Skype audio to accommodate the out-of-country communication. This first interview was a laid back but professional conversation discussing the position and points from my resume. Upon completing the interview, I was told that I would hear back within a week or two at the latest. I followed up by the end of the first week and was pleased to find out my next interview would be with the hiring manager, who reportedly pulled my application from the stack. Needless to say, I was way more nervous for this second interview, and according to my interviewer’s gracious feedback it showed. The tone of the conversation fluctuated between conversational topics and deep thought-provoking career-minded questions. In the end, I felt as if I undersold some of my strengths and stifled my own enthusiasm. But despite my own critical feedback I was contacted shortly after to tentatively schedule a third interview (following the Thanksgiving weekend). I had to reach out to my recruiting team prior to the proposed interview time to confirm who, when, and how it would be conducted, but received a timely response. The final interview was short but very informative and I really enjoyed talking with a would-be teammate and peer in a more relaxed conversation. I sent a follow-up e-mail to my recruiting team a week later and was informed the first interviewer would call me. I'm very appreciative that they broke the news to me kindly and insisted on personally calling rather than e-mailing to tell me that the team made the tough decision to pursue another candidate. They were just as supportive as when we first talked and I was encouraged to keep communications open.

Riot's interview process is ridiculously thorough, which shows how seriously they take the work culture. They want to ensure a perfect fit. The whole thing takes a couple of months and I made it all the way to the final round of interviews where they bring you onsite. I had the hard skills for the job, but unfortunately I didn't prepare properly for the onsite interviews. I was under the impression that the interviews would be on the casual side--information I found in my own research and directly from the recruiter I worked with. Sadly I let myself go in there a little too unprepared. I left a 50/50 impression, good and bad, and they ultimately felt I was too inexperienced in terms of soft office skills (which makes sense as I was a recent grad at the time). The feedback I got was vague & contradictory, which was confusing, and it took a while for me to understand exactly what I did wrong. It was disappointing, but the experience won't deter me from trying again.