Member of Research Staff applicants have rated the interview process at Voleon with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 29% positive. To compare, the company-average is 32.8% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Member of Research Staff roles take an average of 21 days to get hired, when considering 31 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Voleon overall takes an average of 33 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Voleon as a Member of Research Staff according to 31 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 43%
One on one interview: 20%
Skills test: 17%
Presentation: 11%
Group panel interview: 6%
Drug test: 3%
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I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Voleon (Berkeley, CA) in Dec 2015
Interview
After the initial conversation with an arrogant HR person, they give you a relatively simple statistical estimation problem that they ask to write a detailed report on. Further conversing with interviewers reveals that they either don't understand various machine learning approaches or cannot clearly formulate the problems they are asking. HR person also encourages you to read you intro book to statistical learning. In overall, very poor communications. Do not waste your time with this company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe your assumptions for non-parametric regression.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Voleon
Interview
The interviewer didn’t seem to really value my thought process and just wanted the correct answer, It’s understandable for the interviewer to not hold hands to test how the candidate thinks under ambiguity, but giving close to zero feedback or response during problem solving is a completely different matter. The interviewer also seemed rather disengaged throughout the interview.
I had a positive initial conversation with the recruiter, who was helpful in setting up the technical interview. Unfortunately, the technical interview itself was a disappointing experience. The interviewer seemed to be following a very fixed script and appeared to have little flexibility in how answers were evaluated. It did not feel like candidates were rewarded for explaining their reasoning, making reasonable progress, or demonstrating practical understanding.
Several questions felt overly niche or poorly calibrated relative to the preparation material provided. The interview seemed more focused on whether I produced a very specific expected answer than on whether I could think clearly through technical problems. As a result, the process did not leave me with confidence that the interview was assessing the skills actually needed for the role.
I also left with a somewhat uninspiring impression of the work. Based on how the interviewer described the role, it sounded less intellectually engaging than I had expected. In the end, I was not disappointed to leave the process.
Got asked some brain teasers and stats questions. Kind of hard especially starting with a brain teaser that you won't expect in a "stats/data analysis" interview. The interviewer was nice though.