I interviewed at Skillz Inc. over the course of 3 months after a recruiter directly reached out to me. This was the most frustrating interview process I have ever gone through, so I leave this review in hopes that their process can improve for future applicants.
My process was as follows:
1. Phone screen with recruiter
2. Phone screen with manager
3. In-depth phone screen with manager
4. Video interview
5. Full-day onsite interview in Portland (several sessions)
6. 1:1 onsite interview in Portland with an executive
7. Final full-day onsite interview in SF (several sessions)
I experienced several major interview no-nos, such as:
- Being repeatedly told my age was the primary reason for Skillz' hesistancy about my candidacy. This was directly said to be a reason for adding additional interview steps for me. My interview process was constantly delayed and stretched over the duration of a few months as a result of these age concerns
- Being asked about my religion
- Interviewers missing their onsite session time slots multiple times, leaving me sitting alone
- One interview in particular bashing the company and competency of everyone around them
- Being told that my Uber travel costs to/from the airport when traveling for interviews usually would not be covered by Skillz
The purpose of my final SF onsite interview was for final interviews with the CTO and CEO. After traveling to SF though, both executives had to cancel at the last minute. The highest-ranking person I then interviewed with went on to just talk about themselves and how great they were - it felt odd, almost as if it was out of a movie. I was maybe only asked 2 low-level interview questions in that session. They said their current colleagues are not very competent and that they only took this job because they knew they could always return to their previous employer whenever they wanted. I have seen other interviewers mention similar things when referencing interviews with this person.
I was then told after returning home to Portland that Skillz would not be extending an offer or rescheduling those interviews. This was extremely frustrating due to the significant time I spent on the process and the travel. I was even told that the hiring manager for this role wished to hire me, but that he was overruled by executive decision due to my age. It was pretty clear that the executives had not thought through their requirements for this role ahead of time. The executives also clearly do not have enough trust in their team leads to allow them to make their own hiring decisions. This was all very disappointing in general considering the potential that Skillz has.