The Airbnb candidature process consists of six interviews over the course of a month and a half. Two interactions with the recruiter for pre-screening and compensation discussions, two techincal interviews with the hiring manager and a team member to discuss methodology and behavioral questions and two interviews with employees in other areas of the orginaztion to ensure cultural fit.
Applicants are also given an assignment of developping a 5-minute SCORM-compliant elearning course on the topic of their choice to demonstrate their artistic and technical capability.
The recruiter was contacting me after each interview (typically withing 48 business hours) and informing me that I was selected for the following wave of interviews. By the fifth and sixth interview, I was under the impression that I was their ideal candidate as I felt the interviews went very fluidily and because the assignment I developped was on-par with company standards.
One week after my sixth interview, I reached out to the recruiter to follow-up on the next steps, to which they responded “we are looking forward to connecting with you in the following week”. At this point I was sure to be the selected candidate and that they were finalizing paper work and an offer.
After two weeks of ghosted emails and calls, I never had closure as to why my candidature was not retained, or any feedback on my assignement, only to be contacted 9 months later by a new recruiter “Hey! Are you still interested in the job? We’re looking for an elearning developper.” Even though the first process left a very bitter aftertaste, I figured “Why not, it is Airbnb afterall”.
And here we are again, the new recruiter booked three meetings last week which they cancelled and rebooked only to end up cancelling without notification.
What a disapointing interview process. I am still not sure why I wasn’t selected in the first place, and I don’t think I’ll ever know. Based on other interviewers’ experience, this seems to be standard practice at Airbnb and something to be very mindful of before investing time and energy into such an extensive application process.