Agoda Product Owner interviews, decoded.

After being shortlisted, I was asked to complete a 2.5-hour online test. It was quite exhaustive, similar to a GRE/GMAT. I thought it was unnecessary to give candidates this test before discussing the role and checking mutual fit. It feels like a waste of time when you don't know if you're seriously considered or just doing an assignment. The HR department didn't provide any feedback or test results, which was annoying after investing so much time.

The hiring team was great and organized everything well. I traveled to Bangkok for the interview loop. This is where things got a bit strange. I've interviewed for PM roles at FAANG before and never got such unrelated questions. I was expecting questions about roadmapping, tradeoffs, analytics, case studies, data, etc. However, 2 out of the 4 interviewers asked me ONLY about solving a probability problem and one of them asked me how I would code a robot arm. Either they're looking for a different skill set or there's some other issue. I don't mind getting rejected, but at least ask relevant questions for the PM role. If you do want to ask such questions, please inform the interviewee.

This was the worst interview ever. The interviewer was late, and then claimed he didn't have my resume even though the scheduling email had it. He was super rude and kept calling me stupid, even bringing up my university and saying people from there are stupid. He questioned if I knew what I was talking about multiple times. It was a video conference call and given my 6 years of experience, this was just offensive.