Chainguard Interview Questions
& Process

Interviewed for AE role: 1st step: Interview with Recruiter - see if you're a fit - Nick is great! 2nd step: Interview with Hiring Manager (He was great) - walk through your background, tell me about yourself, ask questions, etc. pretty chill interview. 3rd/4th step: Interview with Peers - AE + Presale Engineer: Culture Fit interview they are separate interviews but everyones new so hard to get much intel outside of their own experience. 5th: Interview Panel Presentation: Hiring Mgr, Peer, Director of Presale Eng. They have a prompt for you to prepare for - it's a wide range of how you ramp, territory plan, prospect, giving an example of prospecting into an account, and a deal review in a short 45 minutes. 6th: Interview with the Director of Sales. Similar to the Hiring Manager call and walking through your background/peppering you with questions. Cross your t's and dot your i's when interviewing here - every move is being watched lol

The hiring process was quick and really organized, with distinct steps. It started with a phone screen, then a more detailed chat with the recruiter. After that, I talked to someone from the sales team about the role and my background. Then, I interviewed with the EMEA Marketing Director. The last part was a practice cold call with two managers, who gave me immediate feedback. It felt challenging but very clear, with good communication between stages and meaningful conversations. It was one of the best and most personal interview experiences I've had, even without an offer.

I was reached out to on LinkedIn about a Sales Engineer position. The hiring manager thought my skills were a great fit and wanted to chat. We had a 30-minute Zoom call a week later. He was rushed and seemed agitated, barely introducing himself before firing off questions impersonally. He hinted my skills were a bit lacking, contradicting the recruiter's assessment. He ended the call abruptly. I also had a 30-minute high-level chat with a team member. I received a standard rejection a couple of days later. Since they reached out to me, I wasn't too concerned, but I hope they'll be more professional with future candidates.

I initially had 6 interviews with Chainguard, and all went really well. I met with various people, including their President. They gave me a 7th interview with the new Director of ABM, who hadn’t started yet but the person in this role was going to report to her. They also asked me for some references so they could call them, which they did for some of them. The following week, the recruiter called me to tell me they all loved me, all my references were amazing and wanted to love forward. She made me an unofficial offer where we agreed on salary + comp, but was waiting for a couple more things to make the offer official. A week later, they told me they decided to put the hiring for this role on hold, with no further explanation, but they told me it has nothing to do with me. Fast forward a month later, their recruiter called me to let me know they’re reopening the role but the new Director of ABM decided to change the scope a bit, and have the role be focused more on Event Marketing. When I mentioned I also have experience in this, she told me the Director of ABM already has other people in mind for the role. When I checked the updated job posting, I see no reference to Event Marketing and is pretty much the exact same role I interviewed for. So if we read between the lines here, the new Director of ABM wants to bring her own people in the role, even though they made me an unofficial offer a month before. Needless to say this has been a very frustrating and exhausting experience, with a big lack of honesty. This is to say, do not waste your time interviewing at Chainguard (especially Marketing), because at the end of the day, they’ll hire their friends. I wish I didn’t waste my time and energy to do 7 interviews and wish they didn’t waste my references’ time as well.