I Failed my First Clipboard Case - Here's what Happened

I applied to Clipboard’s product team my senior year of college. I failed the first case - in fact, I didn’t even get an interview. I ended up working elsewhere for a year and a half, then re-applied to Clipboard. This time, I passed - with flying colors (if I may say so myself).

Here’s what happened (so you can avoid it).

Success in much of my life candidly didn’t always require max effort. This is probably true of many of the bright, capable early career folks who may be reading this.

Over time, accolades and recognition implicitly lowered my internal mental model on what the passing bar is in life. If I dove for the loose ball in basketball, or tinkered with a side project website, or got a 100% on my AP Psych exam (the test was verbatim from the book, and it was open note!) people acted like I did something really novel and really excellent.

The meaning of excellent changed from pushing the limits of my capabilities to just doing work that’s better than many of my peers. I also discovered I could achieve more “success” by executing just above that bar on many dimensions.

When Clipboard sent me their case, I was inundated with applications and take-home assignments during my recruiting period, and I had historically passed every single interview process and case that had come my way, earning me a slew of offers from several of the prestigious APM programs in tech.

Armed with job hunting ego and a false sense of invincibility, I did some surface level data analysis and pitched a pretty average - and safe - solution that passed a baseline skim but didn’t really stand to scrutiny. I assumed the work would be “good enough” to get to the next round, and made a (bad) prioritization decision amongst competing priorities. That was why I failed my first Clipboard case.

When we say we have an unusually high bar at Clipboard, we mean it. Let my case be your proof point, not yours. When I re-applied a year and a half later, seeking the offer that eluded me, I wanted to know that my success or failure would be based on my skillset, not my effort. I spent more time and mental energy on this case than I had any other interview process. And the results showed - the team has since shared that it was one of the best cases they’d received for that role.

I decided to re-apply because my case experience - and many publicly available culture docs - suggested that Clipboard would likely provide career growth and challenges in a way that no other company would, which I craved. This has proven to be true - I am still rapidly learning new things and developing new skills, which has left me with a broad satisfaction with my work that I don’t believe exists at very many companies.

So, my advice to candidates: If working at Clipboard excites you, then give your case your true, un-fettered best effort. It’s truly amazing what a difference you - and we - will see in your work. What’s waiting on the other side of our unusually high bar is some of the greatest talent, growth and impact you’ll find out there.