I applied online. I interviewed at Nielsen (New York, NY) in May 2021
Interview
Interviewer called and asked the normal questions like tall me about yourself, why nielsen, qualifications, and then emphasized taking the take home challenge. They then ghosted even after multiple follow up emails. Not very professional.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Nielsen in Apr 2022
Interview
2.5 hour coding test + 1 round of behavior/technical interview. Pretty standard hireview coding problems in python and SQL. The interview was the usual behavioral questions with some SQL questions and data science knowledge sprinkled in.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why data science? Create a recommendation system in python
First, I was required to work on problems in Python and SQL. These problems weren't incredibly difficult, but this took quite some time (2-3 hours, if I'm remembering correctly).
The reason I say the interview was clearly negative is because having been in many interviews, I can comfortably say this was the worst one.
The interviewer was incredibly disengaged, and I'm pretty certain they were driving. The questions they asked were unclear (sounded like there were marbles in the interviewer's mouth), and I could hear traffic.
The interviewer responded to every answer of mine with a "thank you for that," and that's it. No personalization at all. I wasn't convinced the interviewer was even listening.
During the Q&A session at the end, I had very thought out, pre-selected questions that I came up with prior to the interview. The interviewer answered each of these questions matter-of-factly, and ultimately cut me off at the end without answering my questions and hanging up.
I'm assuming that I'm not moving forward in the process, so I decided not to wait to leave my review. I was incredibly difficult with this interview as I was looking forward to speaking more about the position. The level of unprofessionalism by the interviewer was incredible, and I feel as if this is feedback that Nielsen needs to receive.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What are you hoping to gain from an internship with Nielsen?