SAE International Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process with SAE was quite slow and the communication from the recruiter was unresponsive. I interviewed with two team members for a part-time role. The discussion was very casual and mainly revolved around my question about guaranteed hours, not really about my experience or qualifications. They gave the impression that there would be enough work to ensure 20 hours weekly. The job seemed manageable for me, but they didn't ask anything substantial about my background. Despite this, they seemed interested. After the interview, I didn't hear back for weeks. I had to follow up multiple times with the recruiter before getting a short message saying they were proceeding with other candidates and encouraging me to keep applying. About two months later, I saw a new position that was a great fit and applied again. I told the recruiter directly but got no reply. After more follow-ups by phone and email, I finally heard back, again with a generic rejection and no feedback, even though I met all the qualifications listed. Overall, the process was slow, communication was all over the place, and the recruiter needed several reminders to respond. The team didn't seem very warm or engaged, and the lack of transparency made the whole experience frustrating. It wasn't a good candidate experience and I wouldn't recommend SAE.

I applied online and the process moved pretty quickly. The hiring manager was great. I had over 8 hours of virtual interviews with people I would be working with and people who would report to me. About half the interviewers didn't seem engaged. The recruiter was not responsive to my follow-up or thank you emails. I'm not sure if I was the right fit, but the recruiter never let me know the outcome after my final interview. It's strange and unprofessional, especially for a Director role. This is something to keep in mind if you take a management role and need HR to help build your team.

I applied on 2/5/13 via Staffmark. The agent called me on 2/7/13. On 2/10, I got scheduled for a 2-3 hour interview on 2/12 with the SAE HR person and the Detroit branch manager. The agent called me on 2/19 saying they liked me and thought I was polished. On Feb 21st, I got set up for a 2nd interview on the 25th. I met with HR, the Office Manager, and the office staff for almost 2 hours. They said they would call to schedule testing the next week. I emailed the agent on March 4th for updates and was told I was still a strong contender but they were reviewing resumes. I called the agent on March 11th because I hadn't heard anything; she said she would call me the next day (but didn't). As of March 26th, I haven't heard anything else. I find their lack of communication and follow-up unprofessional, especially after two interviews with such a respected organization like the SAE!

I went through a few rounds of interviews with the team. I talked with the team members and they asked me questions. I also got to ask them questions. There was a technical interview covering HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They asked a lot of questions for a while. Finally, I did a coding challenge where I shared my screen and was given 2-3 problems to solve while explaining my thought process.