Based on my understanding, the interview process was divided into four stages, but I only made it to round three: Initial Chat Design Task Design Review Meet the team Every form of communication with Creditspring was professional and their staff was friendly and kind. I have nothing to complain about on this front. I had a lovely initial chat and was really excited to work for the company. However, I was shocked when I saw the design task. It was poorly written and contained typos. The UI they provided looked like it was created by someone who had just started using Figma (no grid system, very poor layout, etc.), and the deliverables were excessive. As an experienced designer, I estimate that it would take a week of full-time work to complete. Additionally, as an applicant, you want to present your work nicely, so you spend more time on it than you should, simply because you want the job. (In general, unpaid tasks should not be required to evaluate a candidate's skills. And if a task is given, applicants should not be asked to spend more than three hours on it.) What Creditspring was asking its applicants to do was just rude and utterly ridiculous. It is basically exploiting intellectual property, fully knowing that candidates would go that far and try their best to get the job. This is a very ugly practice! I set aside a day for the task, fully knowing that I did not fulfil the scope they were asking for, and I just wanted to see how far I would get.

The entire interview process lasted around 4 weeks, which I personally believe wasn’t necessary but occurred due to multiple rescheduling issues on CreditSprings behalf. The process was split into 4 stages, first brief chat which was quite easy with simple questions regarding experience and skills, I enjoyed this chat as it was quite relaxed and seemed like a place I would enjoying working at. I was then asked to compete a 1 week design challenge, personally I believe unpaid design challenges are unethical as they benefit those with additional spare time and not currently working. The design challenge was relatively extensive requiring multiple deliverables related to a fictional banking app. I was worried that this could more than just a design challenge and these ideas could be used on the actual app, another issue related to design challenges. After completing this I presented the challenge to members of the design team of which were very friendly and positive throughout the presentation. I received really good feedback and the team was very welcoming. After this I was invited to a final chat with the CDO, this was only 30 mins so felt very rushed and somewhat unprepared on their side - I left this interview with an odd feeling that a choice had already been made prior as there was no enthusiasm or much positivity throughout. Overall the creditspring team was friendly and welcoming but I was disappointed with the lack of professionalism regarding organisation, preparation and clarity of interview content.