I first learned about Flexport and their mission through a friend who attended the Amsterdam Startupfest in 2016 and it got me interested. My study background is Business Administration / Finance and I hold a master’s degree from a good school (at least in our country). I had work experience at a very traditional freight forwarding company and I had been running my own retail/import business for the last couple of years. As my own business didn’t require much of my personal attention anymore and as I was genuinely excited about getting back into the freight forwarding business, I attempted to get in contact with Flexport starting in July to discuss career opportunities. Some of the feedback I read in the other job application reviews sound pretty familiar. It was extremely difficult to get in contact with HR staff. I emailed, filled out the contact page on the flexport website, called the office directly, left voicemails, asked assistants to ask the person in charge to call back, but nothing seemed to help. As my business did close to 10 containers per year I also just tried to sign up for an account for a couple of times… also no reply, not even a no thank you or other automated message. After 0 replies after 2 months of trying I simply called the manager of the local office in Amsterdam and simply introduced myself. I learned that at the time they only had an associate role available, but I didn’t care so I applied. I had a great first phone interview with the same manager and contrary to what is written in other interviews I felt it was an extremely professional interview. The interview was basically an introduction of yourself and an introduction to flexport and some basic questions about motivation for the job. A week later I had a phone call with the head of HR from SF, she explained me the basics I needed to know about working at Flexport and the terms of possible employment. I did realize at some point in the conversation with her that she called me at 6 am SF time and didn’t sleep the entire night as she needed to process the candidate applications for all offices around the world and due to the shortage in manpower it was important for her to keep up. I was invited for a personal interview at the Amsterdam office not long after. I had a total of 3 interviews with an operations manager, sales manager and a VP I was in contact with earlier. Prior to this interview you will receive an info sheet with some basic tips for preparing for these interviews. The interviews themselves were professional but also very interactive and you have lots of opportunities to ask questions. You will be presented with a couple of cases which should be very simple if you have prior freight forwarding experience. If you have no prior experience, I would advise you to pick any product from Alibaba and make your own case study on what needs to be done to import a pallet load of whatever product. A couple of days later I received word that although they also very much enjoyed the interview and I was more than qualified for the position they decided not to continue. I did however have a feedback conversation with one of the interviewers afterwards. I was overqualified for the position and they wanted a more specific understanding on why I wanted to work for the company. During the interview worries were expressed if Flexport could provide enough of a challenge (or the correct challenge) for me personally. I would be lying if I said that I could agree with their conclusion, but it is what it is. Although I felt disappointed, overall it was a pleasant experience as the actual interviews more than made up for long wait. I think Flexport is on to something with their business model and I think they have a great future ahead of them. I’m not sure if they will fulfill the promise of being disruptive...But I’m challenging for a wager :)

there were three stages: a regular interview with questions such as telling the interviewer about yourself and some STAR style questions, a case study interview surrounding dealing with an unhappy client/losing client’s supplies, and an interview which surrounded questions on drive and resilience.