The application was straightforward. Made it to the first interview with HR and had a terrible experience. The recruiter was not listening and was scrolling through different apps on their desktop, which was evident in reflections. Despite using the STAR method to respond to questions, I would be asked to elaborate 2-3 times for the same question. At one point, I asked a question towards the end of my response and was responded with 'can you please elaborate'. At this point, it was quite clear the interviewer was not listening. Following the conclusion of the interview, I was not given a chance to ask questions and when I emailed the questions, I was ignored and straight up rejected. Not sure why they wasted both our time when the recruiter was already set on not hiring me?
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about yourself. How do private equity firms respond to recessions?
I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at ProSapient (Lisbon, Lisbon District) in Oct 2023
Interview
I was only able to do the exploratory interview. Although I enjoyed the process, the interview was very heavy on company based questions and about their competition. The interviewer asked a lot of questions to make sure I did my research. I was very excited about the position and the fact that they contacted me 1 day after doing my application. They said they'd give me an update in 3/4 days. It was very disappointing that they never officially rejected me for a second interview, nor replied to my email asking if they had made a decision.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you name some of our competitors? What kind of challenges do you suspect companies in this field are experiencing right now? Can you tell me what someone in the Research Associate position does?
I applied online. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at ProSapient (London, England)
Interview
Some basic competency questions, followed by a 20-minute test and then a discussion about the answers.
People seemed nice and they said that they would get back to me soon. However, it has been almost 2 weeks since the interview and I have heard nothing from Prosapient - even after asking for feedback and calling the HR department. Overall a very frustrating process and a highly negative one.
Having read some of the other reviews on glassdoor, this seems to be a recurring theme...