Silver Peak Systems Interview Questions
& Process

It started with a recruiter phone screen, then a tech interview from someone in the role. Finally, I visited the corporate office for 6 in-person sessions with different people from the company. I was referred by someone I would be working with, and we had worked together before. I was flown to San Jose and had 6 interviews, each lasting 30-60 minutes. I was there for over 7 hours with very short breaks between interviews. They told me I didn't get the job because I didn't have enough experience selling to Service Providers, which was strange since we barely talked about that. My potential manager, who used to be a programmer and now leads a Service Provider Sales Engineering team, apparently has enough experience despite never having sold anything. I think SP's interview process and how they treat candidates is dysfunctional. I wouldn't recommend this company to those seriously looking for a job.

First, a recruiter reached out. Then, there was a phone interview with a technical person focusing on networking. After that, I went for an on-site interview. The on-site had 4 technical folks and a manager/director, but it wasn't a panel. They interviewed me individually about networking and Python automation. The whole process was pretty smooth, the people were nice, and they got straight to the point. They gave me some high-level feedback and said they'd get back to me within a week.

So overall it was a pretty good experience, I didn't want to say it was a bad experience but I felt I got over interviewed by the end, talking to about 9 people in both the local NYC office and the California office, about 50% 50% at each office. Got tech grilled/screened 3 times. In the end no offer, and it was said that I was not "senior" enough, and seemed better fit for a more junior role. I can only chalk it up that they had something or someone else in mind for the role that was slightly less technical and had more time in an SE role. The whole process took about 5 to 6 weeks. After a first initial "are you interested" call, about a week later I had a meeting in the NY offices and met some of the sales team. Had some conversations regarding the role, my past experiences as a Systems Engineer, and some conversations about the NYC market. Also, was given a broad set of things to look over, to which I asked some more specific questions about what in particular I should pay attention to or focus on, and details were given on what to look over on the technical side. About a couple of weeks later, I had the tech screening. This was done by another Silverpeak SE based in the NE region, and was a phone screening. Questions were based on TCP/IP, general networking. a week or so later, I was flown out to California. Before I continue this, I wanted to clarify given that there is another review stating that the interview process is a scam. This is completely not true. Maybe the person that wrote the review had never traveled for a company and have had to have filled out an expense report. It is standard procedure in many companies that I have worked for in the past, to pay for your own travel expenses (airfare, car rental/taxi, food, lodging), and then after the trip occurs fill out an expense report with your trip expenses. After the report is submitted, within a reasonable amount of time, you will get a check to cover these said expenses. In California (San Jose Area), I met 4 people, of which I was tech screened 2 more times. The other 2 interviews were a bit more conversational about my previous sales experiences. I felt both tech screens went well. I'd say it was a difficult interview given the depth of which I had to review some key topics that I was told were important. But the questions regarding networking were not difficult at all given the focus that I had put in to prepare for this interview. No questions were asked that were out of the realm of what I was asked to brush up on in the beginning of the process.

The first round was a coding round. Then, I had an initial phone screening with the Software Development Manager. Surprisingly, as a SDM, he didn't ask for my introduction or provide an overview of the company or the type of work they do. He immediately started asking technical questions. Even when I asked about the work and tech stack at the end, he seemed uninterested in responding. It felt unprofessional and rude.