Xevo Interview Questions
& Process

I applied on LinkedIn and went through a pretty standard interview process. A recruiter called me in May, then I had an hour-long call with the Hiring Manager, followed by four rounds of loop interviews. The interviews themselves went well. The recruiter initially said I should expect an offer by Monday, but on Tuesday, they called back. Management was apparently unsure about the role due to an internal departure. After putting me on hold, they ultimately decided not to move forward with the position. It was a really disappointing experience and a waste of my time.

I had a couple of chats with HR first to see what I was looking for and to learn about Xevo. Then, I had a few interviews with some engineers. After passing those, I went through a full interview loop with engineers, which involved coding challenges and technical discussions about my work history. Once that was done, I had another interview with the team that seemed like the best match. I really liked the whole interview process, it was engaging and interesting, and honestly, not stressful at all. They also spread it out so the whole loop wasn't crammed into one day, which was nice and prevented exhaustion.

This was a pretty terrible interview process. I get that interviewers and times can get shifted, but all my interviewers overlapped or were late. One interviewer was 10 minutes late and when he got there chuckled and said he didn't have that many questions anyways. I sat in their meeting room for 30 minutes waiting for them to track down the next interviewer. The group seemed disjointed and unclear of what they wanted/needed so they didn't ask any real interview questions pertaining to my experiences, but mostly told me their issue and how I would be able to solve it. The impression that I got was the team is very disorganized and not very professional.

the interview process itself was pleasant. I did not have any take-home projects or live coding/scripting exercises. There are two phone screens with managers, and three technical screens, one with a senior engineer/developer and two with engineers from the same team. The calls with the managers are big picture / day to day discussions, where you will learn about the company and its products, and what problems they're looking to solve. Generally, just social discussion, very casual. They were very transparent and had a good understanding of the company's trajectory. By the end of the 1st phone call, i could already conceptualize how I might be able to contribute. The technical screens were both the same format -- introducing/meeting each other and comparing personal values and what you are looking for on a team, projects you have worked on, "tell me a time"... scenarios or 'war stories'; imaginary troubleshooting, "walk me through your thought process on this issue", and a bit of networking/Linux fundamentals trivia. The first technical screen is with a senior, and the other two are with engineers that were on the same team for the role. I also went in to the office for a meet and greet, having done all my interviews by phone at this point because of scheduling conflicts. that was about 2-3 hours of chatting with the manager and same two engineers from the team. again, casual. got a chance to understand the products and teams in more depth. They provided lunch as well. I received an offer about a week later, but with different terms. they said because of a budget change, the role was no longer salary, but contract of 'about three months ish'. I originally declined because 44/hr was too low for me; they countered at 52/hr and gave me a very short deadline. The recruiter needed my written/verbal acceptance before she could tell me the exact contract length, though. I told her I couldn't realistically consider the offer without that info so she had the contracting company, Collabera, call me the next day. They didn't have the contract length either, and despite me saying "I can't give yes/no without that info" they tried to strongarm me into saying "yes" so they could 'negotiate and get me $54/hr'. Ugh. Ultimately, the health care plans from Collabera were not sufficient for me, so I declined. It's too bad, because the engineers were awesome, but their offer process showed so many red flags that I feel confident in my decision now. Nonetheless I am grateful for the time spent and happy to have met the team. The interview experience was positive and if not for the offer / counter offer scenario being the way it was, I would have rated this process a "positive" or "neutral". With hiring practices like this, Xevo is scaring away the talent they probably need the most -- and potentially bringing in conflicting personalities -- for example, people who are desperate "just to have a job" and end up doing bare minimum, or who are under-qualified in practice but looked good on paper/in interviews, then are generally incompetent. People with those traits are far more likely to accept an offer which is blatantly risky/vague. The engineers expressed need for specific types of people. They wanted loyal, qualified individuals, independent thinkers, people who are not afraid to speak their mind, that will stick around long-term and benefit from the morale of their coworkers. My advice if you are considering applying: be up front about your boundaries for compensation and benefits. Ask each person similar questions to make sure the team's all on the same page. ask about policies, turnover rate, contract-to-hire experiences, how decisions are made and how priorities are determined. My advice to management - If you have an opportunity to be transparent about changes to the role or interview process, tell the candidate ASAP. Then, let the candidate decide if they want to continue interviewing or not. don't wait until the very end. - Reserve time for the candidate during the offer consideration process. Let the candidate know the best time and method to reach someone who can answer their questions. Take responsibility for any delays in the process and be more flexible with offer expiry deadlines. Disqualifying a candidate because of a lapse in hours or even a few business days just because they want to make an informed decision is very unprofessional. - Be proactive and consider a more formal offer process. Get the candidate information they need about the role to make an informed decision BEFORE setting a deadline for an offer, to the best of your ability. as for the offer itself, it doesn't have to be a letter. a well-formatted, succinct email reinforcing the role's responsibilities, rate/pay, benefits documents (even if contract role!), expected start date (and end date if contract), and have it signed off by manager(s) if needed.