Teradata Product Manager Interview Questions
& Process

The interviewers are very strict about their expectations and won't try to sell you on the role. They ask one question, and if your answer isn't exactly what they're looking for, you're out. My interview was supposed to be 30 minutes but ended in 10. I tried to talk up my skills to give more context and got an extra 15 minutes, but it didn't help. Also, the job description was unclear and they used it as a trick question during the interview.

I was contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn who found my profile interesting, and another recruiter outside of Teradata also reached out and was competing to submit my resume. The process started with a recruiter screening via email to check for alignment and salary expectations, as they wanted to move quickly. This was followed by a phone interview with the Hiring Director, which went well and led to an onsite interview. The onsite involved the Hiring Director and four other individual product managers, and focused mostly on behavioral questions and agile experience. Although I felt I interviewed well, after about 4 weeks, they hired someone with more domain expertise. I suspect they might have been concerned about my tendency to move on after 3-4 years at a company.

Applied for a product manager role. The first interviewer seemed uninterested in my background and immediately jumped into coding questions, specifically linked lists and trees, similar to those in 'Cracking the Coding Interview'. I found it disengaging as the interviewer didn't encourage thinking aloud or pseudocode, only wanting the final code. It felt like they had a predetermined list of answers. Towards the end, I was asked to self-assess my skills using a lengthy list. The second interviewer asked about smart pointers, a skill I haven't used in six years, and was strict about syntax. Amusingly, this interviewer then asked about *my* performance, followed by bragging about their own skills, value to the company, and their manager's opinions. I was later informed that I might not be suitable for 'highly technical roles' but could be considered for others. The overall process was poorly managed.