went through the GS product designer interview loop for a role on their consumer banking team (Marcus). not the most glamorous UX environment but the process was thorough and i learned a lot about what they value.
the short version: GS is not a design-first company and the interview process reflects that. you need to be comfortable explaining the business impact of design work, not just the craft.
the process: recruiter screen, portfolio review, three interviews, one design exercise.
portfolio review (60 min): i presented two case studies. the questions were much more about outcomes than process. not "walk me through your design thinking" but "how did you know this worked" and "what metric moved." one interviewer asked what i would have done differently if i'd had a larger budget. good question. also asked about working with engineering constraints, which matters a lot in a legacy tech environment like a bank.
design exercise: 24-hour take-home. redesign a specific flow in the Marcus app (they gave me a specific one with known usability issues). i did user research synthesis, three flows, and a rough prototype in Figma. they wanted me to present tradeoffs, not just the best solution.
interviews 1-2: behavioral and design philosophy. why do you make the design decisions you make, how do you handle feedback from stakeholders who aren't designers, tell me about a time you had to simplify a design because the engineering cost was too high.
interview 3: cross-functional partner interview. a PM and an engineer. they asked how i include them in the design process and what my relationship with handoff looks like.
the comp for senior designer level in NYC came in lower than i expected. low-$100s base. design is not as well compensated at GS as at pure product companies. the tradeoff is stability and the name.