I met a recruiter at a Cal Poly career fair and he was really friendly to me and excited to hear that I had some mobile design experience. I handed him my resume and he gave me an email and told me to shoot him a resume with a link to my portfolio. I sent him an email later that day and he got back to me really fast to set up a phone screen in about a weeks time or so. The phone screen went. He told me a little about Mindbody and how it was growing and a fun place to work and then I was asked about my experience and what I knew about Mindbody/why I wanted to work there. A few days later I had a screening with one of the Senior UX designers. This interview was actually pretty difficult. I was asked very specific questions about User Experience and HCI such as, please describe design thinking, define user interaction and some other questions. I knew the ideas and concepts behind all of the phrases I was being asked about but I hadn't heard most of the exact phrases. He gave me a few hints and I kinda drudged through the interview but didnt feel very good about it and thought I was done. Turns out I was wrong because I was told by my recruiter that I would be moving on to the last phase which was a design challenge. The challenge was to construct a pen and paper mockup along with 1 high fidelity screen for an android concert app in a 4 hour time box and you are given a week to find that time (they just trust you to time box it). This was a bit challenging for me because I had only designed iOS apps before. After I submitted my designs I was scheduled to do an on-site final round interview with the meat of the interview being explaining why I made the design choices I did in the project. The interviewers were really cool and relaxed. They asked some pretty tough questions but I felt alright about it overall and this is when things started to get a little weird. The more senior interviewer told me that out of 50 some candidates that I was the number one choice but that they actually didnt have the position I was interviewing for even available at all at the time. I wasn't sure if this was them letting me down nicely or if they actually didnt have the need for a ux intern at the time. About a month later I got an email from the interviewer that the position had opened up and that they wanted me to start ASAP. The only problem was that it was late spring and I had already committed to another company in the Bay for a summer internship. I told my recruiter that I wanted to stay true to my commitment and go to the bay for the summer but that I still wanted to be at Mindbody for the rest of spring and then come back in the fall. He got it cleared with the team and I was promptly sent an offer and I was stoked to get started. The next morning I get a call from the Senior designer that interviewed me over the phone and conducted my on-site interview. He told me that there was some miscommunication and that they actually needed me to be there during the summer if I wanted the position. I was really surprised and caught totally off guard so I said it was cool. He said that I could contact him when I get back from my internship in the fall and be hyper-tracked through to a position if there was one available and he noted the company was growing fast and that he felt fairly confident that there would be something available. I'm definitely still excited about working at Mindbody in the fall if they have a position but its a big bummer not to have anything in writing because as I've learned in my job search if verbal promises are never guaranteed and in this situation I've learned even getting something in writing doesn't offer a guarantee either. Let me finish by saying that I still really like the company and want to give them a pass because I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt. If I could offer some advice to the recruiters and teams within Mindbody it would be too do a better job with internal communication. If everyone was on the same page you wouldn't have to retract offers or send mixed signals to candidates. I know internal communication is difficult especially when you are busy talking to alot of candidates and shipping products but I think it is very important for the future of any company to make sure you are hiring the best possible people.

Started with a phone conversation with a friendly recruiter, several rounds of interviews over Zoom, and then nothing for two weeks. After following up with the recruiter a few times, I got a response that said the team went with someone else. That was straightforward but the 2 week waiting period seemed unfair and left me with a lack of trust should our paths cross again.