I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Canva (Sydney) in Aug 2020
Interview
It was a very pleasant process, the company was very helpful to guide me through it. It was also quick, had 3 stages, phone screening, the coding interview, and the values interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a time when you worked in a team to solve a problem?
Only apply if you really keen to join this company that claimed to be best work place in Australia.
Generally, Canva will have 4 round of interviews which the HR explained that the process is tedious because they are looking for the right candidate and hence, it is necessary.
I was required to attend 2 rounds of interviews and also complete an extensive take home challenge exercise (3rd round) which took me 2 nights to complete. The last round of interview will involve presentation but in the morning of the scheduled date of my last round interview, I received an email and a call from their HR saying that they will not proceed with the recruitment as they have decided to promote someone internally...
I really felt they had wasted my time and effort in going through their extensive recruitment process and moving my meeting schedule to accommodate for the last round interview. I really had put a lot of effort into the tasks required by the process and to have it all cancelled so suddenly halfway through made me very disappointed. I hope my bad experience does not happen to others and this is not an example of how hard work in the company is recognised.
I applied through other source. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Canva (Sydney) in Aug 2020
Interview
1 - Initial screening/video call with recruiter
2 - Preparing and presenting a product review
3 - Take home challenge
4 - Final interview - UX whiteboard challenge, presenting take home challenge, career chronology
This is my first Glassdoor review for a company. I don’t usually have the urge to share negative reviews publicly but I hope sharing this experience will prompt Canva into immediate action as their interview process has been shocking, and showed several red flags.
The first round is an initial video chat with the recruiter. It went well for the purposes of screening and I was given the opportunity to ask questions at the end. Similar to some previous reviews, the recruiter asked some very specific product management questions, which I thought was strange as they were a recruiter, not a PM.
Never in my years of interviewing, have I seen such a shocking recruitment process, as it went absolutely downhill from here. I would highly recommend Canva to overhaul how they communicate and engage with their candidates as there were multiple times where they failed in even basic communication and recruitment practices to keep the candidate up to date with the process.
1. Originally told a few days to get an outcome after submitting the take home challenge, this ended up taking 2 weeks of chasing from me to get a result - a simple update letting me know that there'd been a delay would have been enough but I was kept in the dark the entire time. My engagement with the interview process decreased dramatically after this.
2. The recruitment team missed several of my follow up emails prior to the final interview. I ended up being briefed about the interview content and structure 1 day before my final interview, again, leaving me in the dark and unprepared.
3. The most disappointing aspect was that the recruitment team didn’t even bother to pick up the phone to call with the outcome - instead, this was sent via email. As a human being who has invested more than 25+ hours into their recruitment process over 4 rounds (which included preparing and presenting material back), I was hoping to receive a call, regardless of the outcome. This is not very respectful to the candidate’s time and efforts so far. Major red flag.
Most of the above can be resolved if their recruitment team simply picked up the phone and communicated transparently with their candidates throughout the process - something very basic, expected and standard in recruitment. As some previous reviews have pointed out, there is much to be desired in the recruitment process.
I had high hopes and respect for Canva originally, but I’ve only been left with severe disappointment at every stage. I hope this is an isolated case and not a true reflection of how they treat their candidates or what they are as an organisation. This has left a bad taste in my mouth and proven to be a waste of my time. I would advise potential candidates to tread with caution as it seems like candidate experience depends on the draw of the lottery. Canva may be depicted as a great place to work, but as many of the reviews here have pointed out, they have much to improve on in their interview process. Interviews are a two-way street - the tech community in Sydney is small and word gets around. I wish Canva all the best in the future.