Spireon Interview Questions
& Process

It was one phone call and then an in-person interview at the main office. They were pretty fast to get back to me with an offer. They didn't really have a formal onboarding, you kind of just get thrown in with another rep. It felt like there was a lot of politics and I noticed a lot of turnover eventually.

First, had a 15 min recruiter call where I mentioned my salary expectations, and they seemed open to it and wanted to move forward. A few days later, I had an hour-long Zoom technical interview with another Principal Software Engineer, which went well. The recruiter said the feedback was good, so they set up another virtual technical interview a few days after that, this time with about 5 engineers on Zoom for an hour, which was pretty straightforward. The recruiter again said the feedback was positive, so they arranged a final round interview with the Director and Manager on the same video call for about 45 minutes. I expected this to be more behavioral, but it was technical, including a coding exercise and some design questions, which also went well. I followed up with the recruiter, who wanted to talk. He told me the team thought I was technically strong but couldn't offer the Principal role; they could offer a Senior role with a lower salary than discussed. I declined, and he seemed surprised. I felt they tried to lowball me, and if salary was an issue, they should have said so upfront instead of wasting time. If I hadn't interviewed well, they should have just moved on to other candidates, not acted unprofessionally.

This hiring process was incredibly long, taking about 3 months for a final 'no'. It involved 3 on-site visits and 7 interviews total. The application was on 7/31, with a recruiter call on 8/9. A phone interview with the hiring director happened on 8/11. They wanted me on-site for an interview with the hiring director on 8/21, which went well. Another on-site was scheduled for 8/24 with 4 people, lasting 3 hours. On 8/29, I interviewed with a senior PM, CPO, CMO, engineering manager, and HR/recruiter. After that, on 9/1, I was asked for references, which I provided the same day. Emails on 9/6 and 9/11 inquired about the reference check status, with a response on 9/12 that they hadn't been completed yet, aiming for 9/25. On 9/25, the technical recruiter said the final step was meeting the CTO. I met the CTO on 9/27 and got the impression they might have been looking for a hardware product manager. An email on 9/29 asked for a decision and feedback. By 10/11, I was told the process was slow and I was one of two final candidates, with a referred candidate from the telematics industry now in contention. An update request was sent on 10/24, followed by a rejection email on 10/26. The recruiter asked to connect on LinkedIn in the rejection email, but still hasn't accepted the request.

The interview process felt really comfortable, and it seemed like the team was genuinely interested in my work. I met with two people from the team I was applying to, the CFO, and then two other product managers. Everyone was friendly and easy to talk to. I presented my portfolio to the two team members, but not to the CFO or the product managers. The interviews were mainly focused on getting to know each other, discussing the team's work, and learning about the company.