I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Rakuten (Palo Alto, CA) in May 2015
Interview
I was referred by an internal manager at the company and was scheduled to talk to an H.R. person for a phone screening. The interview was scheduled very quickly and I was unimpressed by the quality and relevance of the interviewer's questions. While the conversation flowed and the interview seemed to be going well, I sensed that the interviewer was not interested no matter what I said. I am a very experienced and qualified person and I thought that this was a case where H.R. should not make decisions on behalf of hiring managers.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Jan 2025
Interview
First round with the Hiring Manager and Second round with some team members. They explain they are hiring for someone to work on new projects that were started by them but overloaded.
I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Jun 2024
Interview
I applied through a recruiter for a haken position. The recruiter informed of all the steps and gave me a list of potential questions. The process took over 2 months with 3 interviews total, as the team was in a restructuring phase. Questions were pretty vague and I got the feeling that they didn't really understand the role of a senior PM. One interviewer was very nice, while another seemed quite rushed.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Jan 2022
Interview
Was told from the start that my qualifications probably didn't meet the bar of the job ad, was made to feel inferior the whole time. Very rude managers (all non-Japanese)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you set a roadmap for so and so product?