I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Thumbtack (San Francisco, CA) in Jul 2017
Interview
I was referred by an employee (after being referred once before and was never contacted). I interviewed at Thumbtack (San Francisco, CA) in July 2017.
Phone Screen with the recruiter and take home analytics test. The phone screen is pretty standard -- talk about your interest in the company, the role, and relevant past work experience. The recruiter was a bit junior and wasn't able to provide much insights about the work product analysts do at Thumbtack. She also didn't provide much assistance during the take-home test and provided very general responses to my questions.
The take home test is exciting; however, the analytics team doesn't provide any guidance about their expectations and depth of analysis they'd like to see. I was told the test takes 2-3 hours and provided back an analysis that sufficiently met this requirement. The team wanted to see more insights and analysis beyond just answering the questions and this expectation was not communicated. It's unclear as to what the team is looking for (the take home test is suited to someone who already knows Thumbtack's data and how they work). The feedback I received for my analysis was not helpful, the team mentioned the things they liked about my responses and what they didn't like... but there's no feedback to help a candidate improve or know the type of analysis and responses they were looking for.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How does the number of visitors change over time? How do category and device influence these metrics? By category, what price do you think Thumbtack should charge professionals to quote? What factors contribute to some requests getting more quotes than others?
First round interview with HR. Asked about background and resume and also a stats questions. One week later I received onsite interview requests. Onsite interviews including analytics exercise, SQL, case and hiring manager chat.
Prior to the onsite, I was asked to complete a take home analytics assignment which can be done in Python or R. The onsite had a couple modules on topics like case studies and guided analysis.
I applied online. I interviewed at Thumbtack in Jan 2021
Interview
First had a call with the hiring manager to discuss work experience, interest in the company/role. Was then sent a 48hr take home challenge. You are allowed to make either a presentation or a word doc, and there are a few questions to answer. However, based on the feedback I got, it looks like they were looking for you to go beyond the questions themselves (i.e. it asks you about one cohort of users, but the grader expected me to compare and contrast both cohorts). Seems like there was discrepancy between what they wanted to see and what was requested. However, they did provide feedback -- though it made me feel like the grader rushed through reading the document because some of the points I got docked on were for things that I had in fact included in my document (examples of recommendations, etc.). Seemed like pretty subjective grading.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Take home assignment based on charts they provide. No coding required
We're sorry to hear it felt like expectations for your take-home exercise were not clearly laid out and that it was not reviewed adequately. We have passed this feedback along to the appropriate team. Thank you for taking the time to interview with us.