I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Meltwater (Los Angeles, CA) in Sept 2016
Interview
BOTTOM LINE: I can only believe that Meltwater is a Ponzi scheme and/or cult. For a "media intelligence" company to put on such a show and not sell me on their product - let alone fully describe it - left me with a poor perspective of the company (which my colleagues in ad tech have never heard of, btw).
LONGER VERSION: After two phone interviews, I was invited to a group interview. At 8:30 AM in a hotel on a Monday morning. When I arrived, there was a group of college-age (or just out of college) kids dressed in business formal in the lobby. A blond woman came out to take "roll call" (she didn't introduce herself). What is this, school?? And why so formal??
They led us into a conference room that was set up panel style - candidates at a long table on one side, Meltwater employees on the other. They went through a spiel about the company with a deck that looked like it hasn't been updated since 2003. The graphics and design were terrible, and they spent about one minute actually talking about their product. They also kept insisting this was meant to be "fun" -- what's fun about a guy in a suit early Monday morning trying to convince us he's fun? Including the "now is the 15 minute break during which we mingle?" Totally forced and strange.
The next hour involved some group "discussions": a debate on the benefits of online vs in-store shopping; describe a client that could use Meltwater's projects; one minute explaining what you're passionate about. I don't know how this exercise was relevant to the company or position. It also became clear quickly that I was interviewing with folks for other (lower level) positions as well. There was one candidate that was smart; the others were incredibly unpolished and very green. (It's possible to be green AND polished, this was not the case).
After a truly awkward 90 minutes, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Super weird energy. They called me about half an hour later to let me know they felt I was "too experienced" for the role. No kidding. I told her I couldn't agree more. Even if they had invited me to the 1-on-1 interview, I would have declined.
They're likely able to attract youngsters by posting their salaries on the job req and hooking them in early in their careers. In my LinkedIn review, it seemed like the average employee age was under 25 with hugely inflated titles (Managing Director? Please).
In 10+ years in the workforce, I've never experienced an interview process quite like this. It was memorable, akin to a really bad date.
They also didn't validate for parking.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is a client who could use Meltwater's services?
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Meltwater (Paris) in Oct 2023
Interview
Hiring manager call On site interview with 4 people at the same time Final interview with VP 2nd round was by far the hardest with 2 Mock calls. Questions were quite pushy from Sales Director.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Any recent news that could impact the business? Are you curious? What is the biggest hurdle in your career
I applied online. I interviewed at Meltwater (Chicago, IL) in Oct 2020
Interview
I applied via LinkedIn and received an email from the TA Manager about 2 weeks later for a phone screening. It was standard screening with the basic questions asked, and she advised the next round would be a conversation with the Sales Director.
The call with the Sales Director was solid; again, standard questions about my experience and he explained more about Meltwater and why they were expanding the team. He said they were screening candidates for a final round group interview for the following Wednesday and invited me to the session.
I received an email with more information on the group interview which included a presentation prompt that we needed to complete in 48 hours and a link to a NYT article that we were to discuss during the session.
The group interview started promptly at 8:30am and included myself, 9 other candidates and 5 Meltwater employees (all from the sales team). It was a 3.5 hour session, which consisted of learning more about Meltwater, introducing ourselves, and working in teams to discuss the NYT article and present recommendations to the team. The session ended with a last-minute task; a 1-minute "quick sell" on something that we were passionate about. At the end of the session, we were asked to provide our contact info, and that they would call us within the hour with an update on who would make it to the *final* round, a 1:1 interview session that afternoon with the team.
The final round with the team was fine, if a little ill-paced. I was asked to do a quick cold-call with one of the reps based on a prompt that I was just receiving and we talked more about what I wanted for my future. I didn't get an offer as they were looking for candidates who were more eager to jump into management much quicker.
1. Video Call
2. Group Interview
3. Panel Interview (same day as the group interview)
Video call was a great experience and I made sure to ask important questions in order to not waste anyone's time. Once I got to the group interview, it was pretty clear that the "Key Account Manager" position that I had applied for, was actually the NEXT step after a "Success Representative" because they ONLY PROMOTE WITHIN. (that would have been helpful during my video call...)
I was called back for the panel interview and at this point, I was willing to sit down with them more intimately as I had many more questions following the group interview. When I asked all five of them about the actual role and if I would be a Key Account Manager, they kept going around actually answering the question. I could tell that they were playing a game and had been extremely dishonest from the beginning. All five employees on the panel would ask questions and then not listen to my answers... I was asked the same questions over and over again. Frustrating that the people who would potentially be my boss and team members could not use common social skills.
Upon leaving the interview, I was offered the job (formal letter to come a few days later) and the base salary was 20K lower than they had originally explained to me. WOW!
Overall this experience was a huge let down, but has sure shown me that companies can put on an amazing show, but their true values are poor and misleading. Good luck to anyone joining this company.
I did NOT accept the offer.
