ICEYE Interview Questions
& Process

I was initially contacted on LinkedIn by an external recruiter for this Staff Engineer role. The process started with an online interview with them, followed by another online interview with the team lead. After that, I had written communication with the company recruiter. Then came a written technical challenge which involved solving four technical problems and showing prior work, though only two problems would be evaluated. A few weeks later, the external recruiter reached out again, mentioning a new opportunity in the same team and that I'd be an excellent fit if I completed the technical challenge. After submitting the challenge, I had a call with the internal recruiter who shared that the team lead's feedback was "fairly positive". I was then invited for a two-stage, 2-hour in-person interview at their offices in Espoo/Helsinki, with the company covering flights, transfers, and accommodation. The first stage was with the Team Lead and a team member, which felt solution-oriented but still unclear about the exact team needs, possibly due to it being a new team with rapid growth and fluid roles. Willingness to work overtime was emphasized. The second stage was a one-on-one with the Director. This felt more like being talked at, with questions about my experience at X, the difference between engineer levels, my suitability for Finland, and career development, which they stated is based on impact and visibility, not years of experience. It became clear the technical challenge would set my pay-scale, and this interview was to confirm it. Finally, an engineer gave me a tour of the assembly facility.

The process is pretty structured and has a few rounds. First thing you get is an email to sign an NDA, and they won't proceed without it. Then there's a Hiring Manager interview (60 mins). After that, you're given a case study to complete in about a week on your own time. This is followed by a Technical interview (60 mins) and a Soft Engineering Skills interview (60 mins). If you pass those, you'll have an interview with the VP of Spain (60 mins). I got through the task and the subsequent rounds, and they gave me good feedback at each stage. However, I was suddenly rejected after the interview round that followed the task completion. No feedback, no explanation, just ghosted. They expect you to post your solution as a public git repository so they can track your commit history. The technical task involved a docker container that simulates TCP sockets, where you had to read, process, and visualize data, and provide observations on waveform type and behavior. It seems like experience mentioned in forums doesn't matter much to them. Despite saying they offer sponsorship, being an international candidate was a disadvantage in the end. Even with positive discussions, good alignment, and a strong submission, the rejection felt like they preferred an EU-based candidate to avoid sponsorship costs. This is a big red flag for international applicants. If sponsorship or relocation isn't realistic, they shouldn't shortlist non-EU candidates to save everyone time and frustration.

The interview process initially involved a chat with HR and the hiring manager. Then there was another interview with the hiring manager and the division manager. After that, I got a technical assignment to do. Once that was done, I was invited for a final on-site interview in Finland. All in all, the whole process was pretty good and very informative, really giving me a better understanding of how things work at ICEYE. It took about a couple of months from start to finish.

Applied for a senior Cloud and Network Engineer position. During the initial HR call, they suggested I might be a better fit for a junior or mid-level role and we discussed salary. The HR seemed skeptical about my CV's listed skills, but they did give me an assignment. Despite the job description listing many required skills, the assignment was just a simple Python file to be returned as a zip. I sent it back two days after the interview but didn't get confirmation it was received. The HR who interviewed me was going on holiday soon, so they gave me another contact person. Since I hadn't heard anything about the assignment, I emailed the second contact. Immediately after that email, I got a rejection email within two minutes. There were several red flags throughout the process: 1. The initial negotiation of roles and salary. 2. The HR's skeptical attitude during the interview, focusing more on technical details than candidate input. 3. The lack of specific feedback on why the assignment wasn't successful, just a generic rejection email. 4. The discrepancy between the extensive skills listed in the job description and the simple Python script assignment, especially since a Git repository would better reflect work style.