Glassdoor users rated their interview experience at Pocket Gems as 100% positive with a difficulty rating score of 5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty). Candidates interviewing for Mobile Engineer and rated their interviews as the hardest, whereas interviews for Mobile Engineer and roles were rated as the easiest.
The hiring process at Pocket Gems takes an average of 42 days when considering 1 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Candidates applying for Mobile Engineer had the quickest hiring process (on average 42 days), whereas Mobile Engineer roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 42 days).
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Pocket Gems
Interview
The most awful in-person interview I have experienced.
After an initial conversation with the recruiter, I had a phone interview. It was clear the person interviewing me was looking for very specific answers - he didn't display any thoughtfulness or creativity. He interrupted me multiple times and he clearly wasn't paying attention - in some cases "correcting" me by pointing out something I had mentioned already. Since I felt so negatively toward him (and assumed it was mutual), I was surprised when Pocket Gems requested a second round phone interview.
The next phone interview, with the analytics manager, was actually pleasant. The conversation was interesting, he seemed open to exploration, and asked intelligent follow-up questions. After that interview I decided I would be open to an on-site interview, if offered one.
Then there was a take-home 3-4 hour SQL case study. The questions were pretty interesting and I enjoyed working through it.
Then I was invited to do an on-site interview. Looking around the office it was clear that it was completely male-dominated. A shame, since this company has presented itself as more balanced.
First I met with the guy who gave me the first phone interview, and our follow up conversation confirmed my initial impressions of him. He started out with a SQL problem, which would have been fine except that I was asked to write out the SQL with pen & paper. Then he had another case study-type question. His tone was condescending throughout and he constantly interrupted. Again, it was clear he was looking for one specific answer.
The other interviews were mostly mediocre , and I know I wasn't at my best at that point. Then there was an interview dominated by brain puzzles. Normally I enjoy those kinds of puzzles, but the guy who conducted it spoke in a bored, dismissive way. It was really awkward, and that combined with the rest of the interview experience left me feeling uncomfortable & disrespected.
As some other people have mentioned, they didn't ask me about my previous experience, and they also didn't give me many opportunities to ask them questions.
Something that shocked me: when I asked what role analytics plays in the development of new IPs, I was told it was just used for benchmarking. The guy seemed puzzled when I asked whether analytical insights were used to inform game development. It appears that Pocket Gems is looking for a data monkey, not an analyst.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement - the recruiter specifically mentioned that they didn't want their interview questions revealed on Glassdoor.
The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Pocket Gems
Interview
Phone screen with recruiter followed by two one hour phone interviews with Product Managers, then followed up with a 3+ hour on-site interview. All interviews seemed to rely solely on "problems" "cases" and "brain teasers". I found it rather odd that I was never asked about my experience as a Product Manager at my current job, or other such standard behavioral type questions about how I work and my capabilities. This struck me as strange, but maybe it works for them...
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Create a dice game in which there are two players and three 6-sided die such that if player A chooses a die first, player B can always choose one of the remaining die and have a >50% chance of rolling a higher number than player A.
I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Pocket Gems (San Francisco, CA) in Nov 2012
Interview
Got in touch with the HR person and got a skype interview invite. Was asked to code - string reversal and LCA. coded a recursive version of LCA, however the interviewer was looking for O(N) version LCA