Did the VMware product designer interview process for a senior role on their end-user computing team (Workspace ONE, if you know the product). Sharing because design interviews at enterprise software companies are their own thing and I couldn't find anything specific to VMware.
Full process: recruiter screen, portfolio screening with a design leader, a full-day virtual onsite, then a take-home design challenge.
Portfolio screening call (1 hour). This was with a principal designer. I walked through two projects. They were specifically interested in: how I navigated stakeholder constraints, how I worked with engineers during implementation, and what I'd change if I did it over. Not looking for polished decks. More interested in your thinking than your visual craft at this stage. They asked good questions about cases where I had to simplify a design because of technical constraints.
Virtual onsite (4 rounds in one day).
Round 1: Design critique. They gave me a real screen from one of their products (slightly anonymized) and asked me to critique it. Not a 'what's wrong with it' trap, more 'walk us through how you think about this interface.' I talked through information hierarchy, task flow clarity, cognitive load. They pushed back on one point and wanted to see how I handled disagreement. I think they're specifically looking for designers who have opinions and can defend them without being defensive.
Round 2: Cross-functional collaboration Q&A. Basically behavioral but design-flavored. Tell me about a time a PM disagreed with a design decision. How do you work with engineering when they push back on a spec. How do you handle a stakeholder who changes requirements late. This was about 45 minutes.
Round 3: Design systems conversation. I was surprised how much they cared about this. They asked about my experience with design systems, how I contribute to or consume a component library, and how I think about consistency across a large product surface. For a company with as much product surface area as VMware this makes sense. If you haven't worked with a formal design system, prep a story about how you handled consistency challenges.
Round 4: Leadership and growth. More senior-track questions. How do you mentor junior designers. How do you influence product direction before requirements are locked.
Take-home challenge. They gave me a redesign prompt for a specific workflow in their product (I won't say which one, but it was related to device management). Two-week deadline. I spent about 8-10 hours on it. Presented in a follow-up call.
Offer came about three weeks after the take-home presentation. The work itself is interesting if you like complex, information-dense B2B products. Not consumer app design, but there's real craft work to do.