Three stages for a position based in the Middle East office: an initial hiring manager conversation focused on fit, a panel session covering engineering collaboration and credo, and a take-home assignment submitted in advance of the final discussion. Pros: - Scheduling was smooth and efficient, with interviews and post-interview responses delivered within 48 hours Cons: - The panel had not reviewed the take-home submission and were unfamiliar with the scoping of the assignment itself, suggesting they had done little more than glance at it before the session - The panel discussion conflated strategic product decisions with feature-level enhancements, which made it difficult to engage at a systems/roadmap level - The panel showed some familiarity with traditional ML approaches but limited exposure to newer GenAI paradigms, which appeared to influence their evaluation and made objective discussion of modern or alternative architectural choices difficult - The panel appeared anchored to a specific solution early on, which constrained the ability to explore alternative/production-aware designs objectively - A proposed approach was dismissed as novel despite being documented in the company's own published success stories, suggesting possible gaps in internal knowledge sharing across teams / regions Advice to candidates: - Consider this opportunity only if you want to break into AI/ML. Would not recommend if you are an experienced AI product manager