The interview process at Skyscanner had several stages and took place over a few months. Throughout the process, I felt genuinely challenged across different areas, including my design craft, project management skills, understanding of industry trends, and my motivations for joining the company. Overall, the process felt very thorough and well organised. At every stage I was informed when I could expect to hear back, and the expectations for each step were clearly communicated. A big part of this positive experience was the support from my recruiter, Sameer Muratza. I felt well-informed at every stage of the process, including when I should expect feedback and how to best prepare for upcoming stages. Sameer was very open to discussing my expectations for the role and made sure I had the information I needed to understand whether the position would be the right fit for me. I also appreciated the transparency around the company’s offer. His communication was clear, supportive, and professional, which made the whole experience feel less stressful. Overall, the process was straightforward, appropriately challenging for a company of this level, and a positive experience. I genuinely enjoyed interviewing there.

Step 1: Meeting with a lead designer A friend of mine who used to work at Skyscanner referred me to one of the present colleagues and we went for a lunch all together. This was more a generic discussion than an interview. The person at Skyscanner asked me to send over my materials (cover letter, CV, portfolio and a detailed case study of a project I designed) which I did. (He only saw my email after some nudging, which made the process take 2 weeks longer.) The designer made some good observations about my skills, strengths and also weaknesses, but liked my my works and portfolio in general so he started the official application process. Step 2: Online Skype interview with another lead designer This was a general designer interview with a designer based in London, lasted 1 hour. Step 3: Onsite interview marathon I was invited to an onsite interview at Skyscanner HQ in Edinburgh, Scotland (all costs covered by Skyscanner). Six one-hour sessions, including one non-evaluative lunch with a team member. Most with designers except the bar raiser. 1) Presentation with 2 designers. I was asked beforehand to prepare a presentation about myself, my background and one project in detail I had the most influence on. Tech was annoyingly not working (no cable to TV) so ended up showing my laptop screen. (Hint: Bring your laptop fully charged, email your slides beforehand but also have them on a USB stick, just in case). 20 minutes presentation, discussion afterwards. 2) Bar raiser. This session is adopted from Amazon, was done with a senior technical manager. Many "Tell me a time when..." questions on attitude, experiences, personality. 3) Product Critique / Depth of Expertise This session was with two designers, one remote. Though I was expected to dive into Skyscanner product, I was asked to evaluate another travel service (website and also app) by thinking out loud. 4) Lunch Went out for lunch near the office building. 5) Culture Was interviewed by Head of Design remotely. He had some really good questions which I will not disclose to keep them unique. One question I could not answer really well was about my single biggest achievement. 6) Hard problem I was interviewed by a senior designer. I was asked to use whiteboard and think on my feet. More strategical, business-related, high-level product and UX design questions. It was indeed hard. The interviews lasted from 10am until 4pm, altogether it was very much fun and very friendly but also exhaustive.