The overall interview process at Pinterest was one of the best interviewing experiences I've had. Everybody from the recruiter to interviewers were kind, enthusiastic, and engaged in all their questions. Don't expect cold prewritten questions in your interview, expect more of a friendly conversation about the role and your interest in the job. It's all about cultural fit Pinterest, which makes sense because these employees really seem to work long and hard hours. The process involved some phone screens, a writing exercise, then onsite 1-on-1 interviews with about 8 people. Unfortunately I didn't get the job but I walked away feeling incredibly impressed with everybody there and hope to have the chance to work with them one day. Everybody really believes in the product.

Shortly after I submitted my CV, I received a response from the recruiter inviting to proceed with the interview process. The first step was to submit a writing sample. When applying for a language role, this would be in both languages (English + x language). Next, phone call with a hiring manger and an on-site interview. During the call, the questions were focused on my readiness to do monotonous work, experience working in a team and general understanding of the role. Heads up: while most Pinterets-scale companies would hire vendors to do similar work, Pinterest is hiring people full-time to do the job. With that in mind, the job itself is monotonous, with little career opportunities available and people hired have often little to no experience. On-site was with 3 or 4 different people, each focusing on different areas like Problem Solving, Team work, Culture, Critical thinking. I met one of the future teammates, the hiring manager and one manager from the XFN team. As mentioned, the questions were focused on my ability to deal with the big amount of monotonous work, ability to work independently, previous experience working in the team, and general getting to know you kind of questions. It is very important to provide examples to the questions asked and show interest in the role and the company by, for example, asking follow up questions. Some of the questions seemed to be vague and irrelevant. For example, "How would you describe Pinterest with three words?", "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" and lastly, the classic "Why should we hire you?" question. But it depends on the interviewer. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. I was greeted by one of the team members, shown around the office, offered snacks and drinks. All people interviewed me were nice and easy to chat to and seemed to be genuinely interested in me as a person. The recruiter was very responsive, provided all the preparing materials.