I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Uber (San Francisco, CA) in Jan 2016
Interview
HR emailed me and arranged a phone call with me the next day. The interviewer was pleasant in her tone and asked me a lot of questions including my expected salary, why I was leaving academia, if I was okay with relocating, who else I was interviewing with, and what stage those interviews were at. I felt that it was a little inappropriate when she tried to get the name of the other place where I was interviewing. When I said I was not comfortable with revealing it, she later tried to get information on whether or not it was a tech company. She also made it clear this was NOT a 9-5 job.
I felt that the interviewer was not familiar with the role I was interviewing for. She did not really seem to know what I would be doing day-to-day, examples of research projects, or the managing style of the team leader (she thought for a while and told me that the team leader was "very thoughtful in who she brings onto the team").
An hour or so after the interview, she sent me the 2-hr essay test (in which I wrote a research proposal). I found the task pretty fun and easy, but I did not move onto the next stage. I was told via email that the hiring team thought my skills and experience are a good fit, but other candidates are a better fit. The entire process took only about a week.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is the name of the other company that you are interviewing at?
What are your pay expectations?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Uber (San Francisco, CA) in Nov 2015
Interview
A recruiter from Uber contacted me after being referred to my LinkedIn profile, so not sure if this process is exactly the same for all applicants. The recruiter asked if I was interested in learning more about the position and when I said yes, the recruiter put me in contact with another person in charge of hiring. We had a short 30 minute conversation, mostly information about the position. I was then sent a link via email to a "test" that I had 2 hours to complete whenever I had time. It was a 5000 word research proposal outlining and explaining what I would do to increase driver satisfaction and loyalty. This was then sent to the head of the research team who evaluates the test. I was then contacted and told the head of research team wanted to talk with me, so we set up a 45 minute phone conversation. Most of the questions were related to my interest and fit for the job, with only maybe one research-related question (what would I do if I didn't have total research control - I come from a lab-based PhD research program). A lot of the emphasis was on making sure it would be a job that I wanted to do. After that I later found out I did not move onto the final interview stage (an in-person panel interview at hq). I requested feedback and they were nice enough to provide some - said other people seemed more excited about the job than me and that it seemed I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Left open the opportunity to get back in touch once I had figured out what direction I was heading (industry, academia, etc.)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What gets you more excited: applying the content of your research knowledge or applying the research tools and skills you've learned?
I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Uber in Aug 2015
Interview
The conversation with the person in HR was pleasant enough. He was friendly and nice and asked the usual screening questions. However, the job test included one solitary, vague question and the feedback received was equally unhelpful. The impression I got was that the department was already ready to hire someone else so it wouldn't have mattered what I wrote.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe some of the projects you've worked on recently.