Why even waste my time when you clearly aren't interested at all?

Nov 9, 2021 10 Comments

Just had a first round portfolio presentation with Uber, and during the entire presentation the interviewers did not seem at all interested nor engaged (they don't seem like they are even looking at the screen tbh) When I'm done presenting and were expecting them to ask me questions about my projects, they didn't ask me anything related to what I presented, only 1 generic "how you plan your projects" type of questions.

I have been interviewing around this past few weeks and I have landed several final onsite, so I know my materials. I sure as hell didn't "bomb" this interview, I hit all the points I wanted to make and I finished the presentation at the perfect timing (47 minutes, leaving 10+ minutes for Q&A) Normally I'd feel good about it but as soon as I was done with the interview, I knew they won't continue, it's all on their face.

And just now I got their auto rejection email. It's perfectly normal for me to get rejected, but for this particular instance, I feel like this is such a waste of both their time and my time. Their recruiter went through all the troubles to reach out to me via Linkedin, set up phone calls, show my portfolio and resume to their hiring manager, setting up a one hour portfolio review. I presented exactly what's on my portfolio, and they just aren't interested from the beginning. If my experience is not what they are looking for, why even bother? What did they expect exactly?

YOE: 4.5 years
TC: 200K

#uber #productdesign #interviews

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TOP 10 Comments
  • Google
    i!

    Go to company page Google

    i!
    Had this happen to me at Google the first time I applied. Also having been part of hiring in the past here are some explanations:

    1. Just a bad day. Everyone was busy and stressed out and their mind was stuck with the work they should be doing and stressing about looming deadlines. Sometimes when I would set up interviews, no one wanted to go because they had work to do. Going felt like a punishment because they were all behind on projects.

    2. Your work wasn’t up to snuff. After doing tons of interviews, sometimes people can “tell” the quality of work in the first 5 minutes. The work, how you talk, they can already tell you aren’t going to pass so they seek to optimize their time. This is of course not fair to the candidate and they could be wrong but people seek to conserve mental energy and will look for patterns.

    3. They already hired someone for the role and or they wanted to see if you were better vs that person.
    Nov 11, 2021 1
    • SAP
      fcHH32

      Go to company page SAP

      fcHH32
      I’ve sat through lots of boring portfolio presentations. Unfortunately a 1:1 is usually scheduled right after on the same day. I’m just pissed how my boss tend to pick the ‘wrong’ ones in the technical interview. I think this can be avoided if the interview panel members can be involved early on to weed out the unfit ones before sending them to portfolio presentation. What a waste of time for both parties
      Nov 17, 2021
  • The only logical reason I can think of is they recently sent out an offer and the candidate that just accepted. So they know they'd have to auto reject.
    Nov 9, 2021 0
  • Uber is definitely the worst. I had a similar experience and received an auto rejection even after the recruiter told me we can look at other openings if this one doesn’t work out. There is no value for decency.
    Nov 10, 2021 0
  • New
    schoop

    New

    schoop
    cute girls (and rando peeps alike) change their minds all the time
    Nov 9, 2021 0
  • Tinder / Mktg
    jgfeeefv

    Go to company page Tinder Mktg

    jgfeeefv
    Was it the riders team op??
    Nov 11, 2021 1