For my first interview, I had a 1:1 with a designer and presented my work to her. She asked a lot of great questions and it felt more conversational. For my second interview, I participated in a live design challenge. To be fair, the interviewer was great at asking probing questions, but I do not believe that live design challenges are a good indicator of success for designers. In fact, I believe they are actually a red flag for the company. I have interviewed at other companies that no longer do live design challenges because they realized its shortcomings. There are so many factors and nuances to consider when making any and all decisions throughout the design process. In one hour, candidates are expected to work through the entire design process end-to-end without critical information including business and user context or any real data or insights - which is antithetical to the design process in a real-world product design setting. In addition, the requirement of vocalizing everything throughout the process is biased against those of us that are more introverted and need time (and silence) to think deeply and thoroughly about a problem before coming back with clarifying questions and a strategy to work towards. It’s comical that it was mentioned to me that designers at Revolut are expected to be deep thinkers yet I wasn’t given the space to actually think deeply during the live challenge because I was expected to be vocal throughout the challenge. I simply cannot think and talk/listen at the same time. I also use pen and paper as part of my deep thinking process which is not beneficial in this sort of make-believe setting. I feel that those who are truly deep thinkers could be weeded out because the nature of a live design challenge only benefits a certain type of thinker, and for those that do think deeply but in quieter ways, it can only show surface level thinking. I think what they are looking for are candidates that follow a certain structure and ask the right questions. So if you want to nail this challenge, just find a structured process and framework online and ask all the questions within the framework. I don’t believe that this sort of interview structure is inclusive of how different people think and how different people approach the design process, which to me, is indicative of a culture that doesn’t embrace diversity and inclusion. 🚩