This is my first glassdoor review, I typically don't find the urge to share negative reviews but I hope sharing my experience will help Canva improve their interview process.
The first round is an initial video call with the product recruiter. Overall went well, she gave me the opportunity to ask her questions at the end as well. I noticed she asked very pointed design questions, which I thought was odd seeing that she was a recruiter not a designer.
The part the irked me was the design challenge. They asked you to design an end-to-end flow of a product for their company. Never during my 4 years of interviewing with companies have I been asked to complete a project around a real use-case within the company. I have been on the other side of the interview process and I personally believe it's bad practice to require a designer to essentially provide free labor as part of an interview. It also leaves the candidate in an awkward and uncomfortable situation where the quality of their design-thinking and deliverables are being judged based on how close it is to Canva's interpretation of what is right for their business. With a limited view into the company's business model, design/dev methodologies, it's like asking a candidate to shoot in the dark to deliver that one 'right answer'. Like the other reviews said, the feedback I received were very much quote unquote "this is right...this is wrong." Ultimately felt like I was being judged on my ability to guess how to properly apply their design system and not much else. Lastly, design challenges are typically given after the candidate has had a chance to speak with at least one designer within the company. It gives candidates very little motivation to spend 5+ hours on a project when they haven't even been given the chance to converse with their potential teammates.
I had great hopes for the company but the interview process has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Waste of my time.
