Applied via LinkedIn to a Senior Brand Manager opening on the Maybelline side. Took about 10 days to hear back from the recruiter, which felt fast honestly.
Round structure (US, consumer division): Recruiter screen, 30 min, mostly background and comp expectation Hiring manager call, 45 min, heavy on "tell me about a brand you've built or reinvented" Panel with two skip-level folks, 60 min, included a mini case: "how would you approach launching a new mascara in a declining category?" Final presentation to a small committee. I had two weeks to prep and 20 min to present. Topic was basically: take a real current market challenge and tell us what you'd do.
What surprised me: they care a lot about your consumer data fluency. Not just "I ran a campaign" but can you talk about how you tracked purchase intent, NPS, or shelf share. They also asked about cross-functional conflict, specifically what happens when supply chain can't deliver your timeline.
The presentation round is where it was won or lost. I saw two other candidates in the lobby and the committee asked pretty hard follow-up questions. Mine was about pricing pressure from e.l.f., which was fair.
I got an offer. Comp below. Overall the interviewers were warm but it felt corporate in a specific French-company way that's hard to describe. Hierarchy is real here.