I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Forage (San Francisco, CA) in Dec 2025
Interview
My interview process began with a recruiter call in December, but I did not speak with the hiring manager until February. While the recruiter was friendly, the overall timeline felt slow and somewhat disorganized.
During the process I was asked to complete a substantial take-home case study developing a consumer growth strategy and supporting model for the Forage app. I spent several days researching the market, building the strategy, and creating an acquisition forecasting model.
After presenting the case, additional expectations around the model were introduced, including more granular forecasting and lifecycle assumptions that were not clearly outlined in the original prompt. The feedback ultimately centered on the model lacking certain data breakdowns and additional modeling rigor, even though the totals and core calculations were already present and could have easily been expanded if that level of detail had been communicated. The evaluation ultimately felt closer to a product growth analytics exercise than the strategic marketing case described.
I was also told I would have the opportunity to present the revised model to the team, but that presentation never occurred despite the additional work requested.
Looking at the other reviews, it appears the expectation of producing extensive case studies is not unique to my experience. While the mission of the company is compelling, ironically the process required a significant unpaid time investment and the expectations around scope and evaluation criteria were not clearly communicated.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you define an acquired user and what specific action should qualify someone as a monthly active user (MAU) in the Forage app?
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Forage (New York, NY) in Dec 2025
Interview
The first couple of discussions I ha went well and the team seemed excited to move me quickly through the process. I was given a take-home assignment of creating a partner QBR through a dataset provided which took me four days to complete to ensure I fully understood the problem, conducted research, made informed recommendations, and also ensure I met all of the requirements. A partner QBR is a substantial amount of work to require of a candidate, and no time parameters were provided (e.g., this should take no more than 6 hours). I have learned my lesson to never give a week of unpaid work again and recommend they substantially reduce the requirements for job candidates, I only completed this as I was excited about the mission of the company. I presented to a panel which was largely a one-way discussion as I did not receive many questions. I did not get an offer and the feedback I received was that I did not have enough selling excitement which felt very vague. It is important to note that in my 8+ years of creating QBRs in Big Tech we never used them as a sales pitch but rather for more strategic discussions to influence decisions.
I went through three interview rounds: an initial 20-minute intro call, an in-person interview originally scheduled for an hour but lasting only about 15 minutes, and a final 30-minute conversation with the Head of Engineering. I successfully cleared all the rounds and completed my final interview. However, that same night, the entire job description changed.
I had been interviewing for a Recruiter role, but the position was redefined as a Talent Partner & Office Admin. While there could be multiple reasons for this change, it left me feeling like I had wasted my time, as the position I had applied for was ultimately closed.