KEEN Footwear interview questions

The HR screen for a senior digital growth role at KEEN was honestly one of the strangest interview experiences I’ve had in a long time. The conversation lasted maybe 15 minutes and felt extremely surface level for a role of this scope. A large portion of the call was spent hearing about the recruiter’s own background and career journey, while very little time was spent understanding my actual experience (in fact, zero). The questions themselves were surprisingly shallow: * Why are you interested in KEEN? * Why did you leave Dr. Martens? (despite that not even being my current role) * Have you managed people? When I answered that I had managed a team of five and asked about the structure of the role since the job description didn’t mention direct reports, I was told it actually had one direct report. I explained that I enjoy leadership but still prefer staying close to the work as an IC operator, which is how the role had originally been positioned. What stood out most was that there didn’t seem to be much effort to evaluate whether I could actually do the job. No meaningful discussion around acquisition strategy, growth challenges, channel ownership, forecasting, testing frameworks, attribution, or ecommerce performance. I also wasn’t able to get many answers about the role itself because those questions were deferred to the hiring manager. Overall, it felt very old-school corporate and overly rigid for a modern growth marketing role that should require deeper conversation around strategy, execution, and business impact.

I stumbled upon what seemed like the perfect opportunity based on my background and experience, but after two rounds of awkward interviews with folks that had no interest in connecting or being personable, my opinion quickly changed. Both interviews felt like the questions were pulled from ChatGPT and lacked personalization based on my resume and based on my responses to their questions. I also felt as though they were prying for free consulting advice. When it was my turn to ask questions, the interviewer seemed put off and had no interest in answering them. One interviewer also came across as extremely egotistical when I asked a follow up question about “who do you think is doing that well?” and they said “no one”. I was stunned. The person was either unprepared to answer questions about Keen’s goals, hadn’t done their marketing research they led to the development of this goal, or simply egotistical in thinking “no one has accomplished this but I can”. While I’m disappointed in what I discovered, I do think it is important to keep in mind company culture, as well as job specifications. On paper, the role seemed perfect, but when I met the folks I’d be working with, everything felt off. I know I would not have been happy.