Circles Interview Questions
& Process

The interview was a video call with the recruiter and it was bad. I wanted to share the unpleasant interview with the recruiter a few months back, the way the recruiter talked, felt like she doing me a big favor to interview me. Tone was rude, dominating and super high handed. Kept cutting me off and talking down to me. If HR team behave like that one, how to work? Somemore, I was talking about the interview with my friend and turns out used to work with her at a firm here in Singapore before. He says she also got let go there for same kind of behavior and other reasons. I don't even know if the company got do background check before hiring or train HR to talk politely and professionally. Bad experience.

The process was great, with 4 interviews total. First was a recruiter screening (20 mins) covering current job, salary, location, projects, and interest in the role. Then, a resume round with the Hiring Manager (45 mins) asking about my current role, motivation, past projects, challenges, stakeholder management, and overall strategy as a Product Ops Manager. This was followed by a live case study with the same HM (45 mins) about improving software product delivery predictability, with potential follow-ups. Due to time, another case study was cut short, and I answered more behavioral questions about working style, startup familiarity, and work-life balance. The HM was friendly, shared their expectations (results-driven, diligent, critical thinker, hustler), and discussed job challenges to ensure I was comfortable. Finally, a cultural fit round with an Executive (20 mins) explored my move from an MNC, motivations, adaptability to fast-paced roles, and a weakness, where I was truthful about seeking greater scope.

I interviewed with the hiring manager for a foreign language CSM position. It started out great until he kept asking me why I wanted to switch jobs, as if there was a right or wrong answer. I was still very interested, so I followed up because he didn't get back to me as promised. He replied that he didn't think I could speak the language (we never spoke in it during the interview). He didn't bother to consider that I graduated from a college where that language was spoken, have a family I speak it with regularly, and often volunteer to translate; he just assumed, though he did compliment my other CSM skills.

The interview process involved two rounds. The first was an online interview, and if selected, the second was an in-person interview that included a one-hour coding session. I was asked two questions during the coding round, and the interviewers were quite friendly. I felt I did well on the coding part. Afterward, I interviewed with a manager who asked typical questions about my past projects and future goals. In the end, people who only finished one part of the coding round were selected. It seemed like they were choosing interns based on skin tone.