Sayari Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and a recruiter reached out shortly after with a Google Meet invite for the next day. They didn't schedule it, just sent an invite and ghosted my follow-up emails. The recruiter joined the call 11 minutes late with no explanation and rushed through the conversation. They sent another interview invite for the next day with no context. That morning, I got an email saying the position was filled. Honestly, I think I dodged a bullet; Sayari's hiring process was super disorganized and unprofessional.

This was a really long and difficult process. It felt like they were taking advantage of candidates and asking for free consulting work. They didn't tell me about the free work until late in the game. I asked the recruiter about the interview process upfront, but they didn't mention anything about a free consulting project. If I had known, I would have backed out immediately because I think asking for unpaid work is wrong, especially since the company seems to be involved in questionable practices like exploiting labor in trade compliance. Anyway, after talking to six people, they sprung the free consulting project on me. The team was nice enough, but the interview questions weren't very challenging and lacked depth. Also, they rescheduled four of my interviews multiple times, which shows they are disorganized. Out of the seven people I met, only one peer asked good questions. The others seemed tired and just asked basic stuff from a script. One person admitted they hadn't even looked at my resume, and two others kept saying how 'desperate' they were for staff, which suggests they are overworked. I felt bad for them. In retrospect, these were clear warning signs I missed. The project itself wasn't hypothetical; it was a real, urgent task to fix their team and strategy, specifically their market positioning. It involved competitive analysis, pricing recommendations, market positioning strategy, and a presentation. They claimed it would 'only take 1-3 hours.' It was obvious this was a poorly designed request to get free work instead of paying consulting rates. Anyone in market analysis would know that 1-3 hours is not enough time for this. They unrealistically assumed someone could do all this research outside of work, unpaid. The final step was a 30-minute presentation to the hiring manager and CEO. The CEO only seemed interested in pricing compared to competitors, which is hard to find out without talking to their sales teams, especially for a small startup. They never shared their own pricing info either. I guess they expected me to talk to their competitors for free. Pricing strategy usually costs over $10,000 from consultants and requires extensive research, way more than 1-3 hours. After I submitted it, I had to chase them for updates, and they were late. I almost thought they had ghosted me. Basically, it was a disheartening experience because it's sad to see companies exploit candidates for free work during interviews. It's unethical and undervalues our professional contributions.

There was an initial delay in the hiring process due to a re-evaluation of recruitment needs, which was communicated upfront. After this was sorted, the process moved forward with four stages: first, an interview with the head of recruitment, followed by a language and analysis assessment that was quite challenging. Next, there was an interview with the hiring manager, and finally, an interview with two team leaders. The team interviews were enjoyable, and it was clear they invested time in understanding my background and how I might fit within the company. They answered all my questions, which boosted my confidence in moving forward with them.

In July 2023, I interviewed with Sayari and it was a really good experience. They had a super streamlined and professional process with four rounds in total. The last round was a panel interview with the engineering team. I was really impressed with how professional everyone was and how good they were at their jobs. I didn't get an offer in the end, but I still feel really good about it. Sayari's interview process and the quality of their team members really stuck with me. Even though it didn't work out, I had a good time and learned a lot. All in all, my interview with Sayari was great, and I think highly of the company!