I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Sidebench (Santa Monica, CA) in Aug 2022
Interview
The interview began with a phone screen followed by a set of 3 interviews and ended with a case interview challenge presentation for an hour. I got a chance to talk to folks at every level of the organization and learn about the company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Expect questions on past successful experiences and failures as a PM, parsing signal from noise and your personal values you embody. The case interview does bring out a mix of all these in the final round.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Sidebench (Los Angeles, CA) in Jun 2021
Interview
The process was streamlined and open throughout. Expectations were set early on timing and the whole team was pleasant to talk to. Questions were poignant and challenging.
1 Referral phone screen
1 HR/People Ops Phone Screen
1 Challenge in the form of a presentation to be submitted 2 days before the panel
1 4-person panel interview to review the challenge
1 Product Manager phone screen
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Q: Why did you choose to interview with Sidebench?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Sidebench (New York, NY) in Dec 2019
Interview
After being contacted by two recruiters, they moved me to an on site interview a couple of days after.
I arrived to their coworking offices in Culver City and one of the recruiters met me there. He introduced me to the HR person and left. The HR person was friendly, so we got along right away. They said they needed a person urgently, since their work load was growing by the day. We talked for about forty minutes.
The recruiter calls me the next day and sets up an interview for the end of the week with the team and possibly the CEO, who was out on vacation. Two hours before the interview, they cancelled it and moved it for the next week. I just thought something urgent had come up. Happens all the time.
Next week arrives, the recruiter writes me with the structure of the interview. I'm about to commute to their offices, when I receive a call from the recruiter.
He tells me that Sidebench is moving their hiring process to January, so they're cancelling my interview. He was really mad. Apparently, this was the second or third time Sidebench had started a Product Manager recuiting process with them, and they had decided to "move the hiring time" for another date, after bringing multiple qualified candidates into the actual process.
They "ghosted" me after getting back to them in Jan. Maybe I wasn't a fit and that's fine, I can take it, but at least be respectful with people that have invested time to get to know you and tell them.
The recruiters stopped working with them because they didn't want to tarnish their reputation based on Sidebench's unprofessional behavior, and I don't blame them.
They published the PM role again in February. I contacted them for the last time a couple of weeks ago. Nothing.
I don't know what they're playing, but it's very unprofessional.