Traveloka's Interview Experience in Jakarta for Product Management Position

Hello, world! Can't believe it's 2021 and I have been kind of neglecting this blog. Re-reading some old posts made me feel.. old. Haha!

Ok, so in this post, I want to share my interview experience with Traveloka Indonesia for product manager position. Disclaimer: This is a personal experience with good intentions.

Let's cut to the point.

The steps were:

1. Interview with HR

2. Online test

3. Interview with user #1

4. Interview with user #2

5. Interview with the head of the department

6. Decision

May 2018

HR interview and online test.

Traveloka's HR approached me in LinkedIn. He asked if I wanted to explore the opportunity to be a product manager/associate PM and if I could share him my WhatsApp number. Back then I was still a consultant at Accenture.

I took a chance to explore the opportunity, I gave him my updated CV and we exchanged the communication via WhatsApp. He then gave me the link for online test. The online test consists of 2 sections: Math and data interpretation test (30 minutes) and cognitive test (20 minutes). He reminded me to have a good internet connection to finish the test. The cognitive test was easy, however the math test was quite challenging. If I remember correctly, there was a penalty by reducing the score for taking a wrong answer. He also told me that since I was being approached first, my online test score wouldn't be very much regarded for the next step. But I passed the test anyhow.

User interview in Wisma 77, Slipi.

Then I was scheduled for user interviews, 2 sessions on the same day where each interview took 1 hour. Both user interview sessions, I was being interviewed by product managers. I will emphasize this experience since the user interview is the most important ones.

The questions in the user interview were about your experience in your CV and many open ended questions, specifically about market sizing. Be prepared, be ready for this kind of questions as it's common for product management roles. From this questions, your thought process is assessed, so there is no right or wrong answer but rather your approach. You are most likely expected to draw/answer in a whiteboard.

The example of these questions: how much is the revenue of cinema? Yes, that one line only.

Then you can (you must!) ask follow up questions such as: Where are the cinemas? Can I calculate for cinemas in Jakarta only? Can I assume that this is the revenue for Mondays only?

You should answer with thinking out loud and write all your assumptions on the board such as: location (Jakarta only), day (Mondays only), number of studios in that cinema, do you want to add/remove snack bar component? etc.

The good news is there are a LOT of practice on the internet.

Be confident when answering, stand tall and make sure your voice is bold. It is easy to feel a little zap when the interviewer follows up with more questions to challenge your assumption. But when you are a Product Manager, you know that your life will be full of challenges by a lot of stakeholders. So take the interview as an early training haha.

Last interview/Interview with the Head of the Department, in Wisma 77, Slipi.

In this phase, I was being asked about 1 specific question related to the position I was applying for. The Head was nice but he kept asking follow up question until I was very cornered and honestly say "I don't know". Then more questions were about my motivation to join the company.

After this interview, honestly I didn't expect acceptance anymore because I didn't feel like being the best in the last interview.

The whole interview process for me was quite difficult hehe. If you search on the internet, you will find a lot of articles about Traveloka's difficult interviews. But that's only because the company is a user-centric and has a high standard.

After beating my self up (sounds a little exaggerating but true), a week after my last interview, I followed up the result to the HR. I thought I just needed a closure haha! The HR said that my result is still being reviewed. But I take this interview process in a prayer (I think the hard interviews had made me wanting the role even more). Also, in the middle of the interview, actually my dad passed away so I also prayed to him to give me blessing to embark this new journey.

I think after all those prayers and what I believed I turned out nailing the interviews, after a few weeks, in June 2018, I got my acceptance email. Yay! After negotiated on the offer for few days, I finally accepted the offer.

And that's how my adventure with one of the most amazing workplace started.

The 2 years there felt quite short as the working environment is supportive and positive and the benefits are top-notch. Even when covid-19 started to go wild, as an OTA, of course Traveloka was heavily impacted. But the management could handle the issue about the future of the company very well, addressing the underground doubt by the employees. Though some of my friends were impacted with the layoff, most of them understood and still respected how Traveloka gave a really good compensation.

If you manage to read this post 'til the end, thanks for reading! I hope that you can get the job at Traveloka. Don't be discouraged with any Traveloka's interview stories, the most important thing is to prepare yourself and be confident. Make sure you can explain what's written in your CV.

If I have time, I will write again about the working experience.

Have a good day!