You made it to the footer đ
To get new article update &Â cool design tingz I find, subscribe by taking 4 seconds to type down your email:
On December 13, I received an offer from Datadog for the 2023 Summer Product Design Intern role.
With the economy, this year has been rough. Thus, when the recruiter told me that I got the offer, it was as if a huge rock lifted off my shoulders.
In this article, I want to share my application process and takeaways. I hope this will help whoeverâs interested in applying in the future.
Datadog is an all-in-one platform for monitoring and analytics. They give you real-time insight into your companyâs entire technology stack.
I have to say - Datadog is... complicated. Itâs technical. And this is because the target users are often engineers or product managers.
Anyways, letâs dive into my application timeline.
On October 15, 2022, I cold applied for the position.
One thing to note: For the question âAnything else we should know about youâ, I added three reasons why Iâll be a great fit for the role.
Maybe that helped. Maybe not. Iâm not exactly sure.
I remember vividly how I felt around this time.
Very downâŠ
I did not get any responses. I checked my email every day. No responses.
You might think
Oh, Guo⊠Itâs early November! You still have time!
Well - yes and no.
Yes because I technically have until next summer to apply and interview. But no because seeing how bad the economy and competitive product design is getting, I was panicking inside.
Thus, when I received a Datadog recruiterâs email,
I was over the moon.
And thatâs when the process began.
In the middle of November, I hopped on a 30-min call with the Datadog recruiter.
I created an interview prep document with potential questions that may be asked. Then, I wrote out bullet points for the main questions:
Feel free to copy this template here!
Also, I chatted with past design interns - Becky Han (call) & Isabel Zhang (text). This was super helpful for me to understand how Datadog values design & the process.
Lastly, I did a ton of research on Datadog. I created a student account on Datadog and played around on the platform. I also looked over these resources:
It turned out to be a chill conversation. Luckily, the recruiter asked me all the main questions I prepped for.
In the end, after I asked the question:
Is there anything in my resume or background that could be concerning or that I should address?
The recruiter said there wasnât anything concerning and Iâll be advancing to the final round!
If youâve researched the company, you should talk about it!
For instance, these are the notes I wrote for one of my points for âWhy Datadogâ:
The industry leader in the observability industry. As mentioned in the Dash 2022 keynote, Datadogâs mission is to be the single platform for all observability needs, and with the major updates such as the service catalog and power packs, Iâm excited about Datadogâs mission in the observability industry and I want to contribute to that goal.
I know this is hard. Interviews are high-stake situations.
But, if youâre tense, itâs hard to be yourself. So, try to think of this call as another coffee chat.
At the end of November, I hopped on a call with a design manager for the final round, which consisted of:
Letâs go over part 1 - "portfolio walkthrough &Â interest"Â - first.
Since the recruiter told me that no presentation for the portfolio walkthrough is needed, I focused on the behavioral part of part 1.
Yes - I created another interview prep doc.
Like the recruiter call, the interview felt like a casual coffee chat. The manager asked me about my past experiences and what Iâm looking for at Datadog.
Then for the portfolio section, I shared my screen and walked through two projects I had. At the end of each project, the manager asked about my design decisions and the challenges I faced.
Be ready to be asked about your design decisions. Some of the questions may be:
In general, if youâve put a lot of time into the project, this shouldnât be hard.
After part 1, we immediately jumped into the design exercise.
Before the final round, the recruiter sent over a prep guide for the design exercise. The guide was comprehensive in that it provided:
Iâm guessing the reason for this is that Datadog is a technical product. Also, the prompt tackles an existing feature that has been solved before.
With the help of the prep guide, I then created an entire structure for the exercise. Feel free to check it out here.
I followed my structure and treated the call as a team discussion. I thought out loud during the entire exercise and asked for feedback.
In the end, I came up with a potential solution that we were both satisfied with. And this marked the end of my Datadog interview!
Again, I know itâs hard. But try to see the manager as a co-worker.
Imagine youâre already working at Datadog, how will you work with this manager?
Sometimes, feel free to ask them:
Do you think this makes sense? What do you think?
The design exercise is a two-way dialogue. So donât be afraid to discuss with your manager anytime during the process.
Do not dive head-first into one solution. Create many options, then prioritize based on their pros and cons.
Also, your solution does not have to be hi-fi. I remember my designs after the exercise were just gray boxes and bullet points.
After a few weeks, the recruiter informed me on a call that I got the offer! đđđ
That was Datadogâs application process in a nutshell.
It was a surprisingly short and sweet process, which I really appreciated!Â
Honestly, I donât know why they decided to reach out to me in the first place. But, Iâm very grateful for Datadog being the 1st company to give me a response.
If youâre applying, I wish you the best of luck, and I'm always down to chat!
Thank you for being awesome and reading this far! :)
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, Twitter, or by email. Will love to set up a casual call and chat!
â