What stood out most was the leadership dynamic around the recruitment process itself.
Rather than acknowledging obvious process issues — unclear role definition, inconsistent interviewer preparation, excessive assessment stages, and disorganised travel planning — concerns raised by the candidate were often reframed as attitude or communication problems.
That creates an environment where legitimate feedback appears to be treated defensively instead of constructively.
For a Head/VP of Product role, hiring is itself a product and operational responsibility. Candidate experience, process clarity, stakeholder alignment, and communication standards are all part of that function. In this case, those fundamentals did not appear to be under control.
The overall impression was of a leadership team struggling to run a coherent senior hiring process while simultaneously placing responsibility for the friction onto candidates who questioned it.
Extremely disappointing and poorly managed interview experience with Aerones.
This was one of the most disorganised senior-level recruitment processes I’ve experienced.
The company expected:
* 5 assessments/exams
* 2 additional tasks
* 4 interviews
* A further follow-up with the VP of Product
* International travel for an on-site stage
Despite demanding a very high level of candidate commitment, the process itself lacked structure, clarity, and professionalism.
Two interviewers appeared not to know who I was or why the interview had been arranged. The role itself changed during the process without being clearly documented, leaving me to ask directly whether I was even interviewing for the same position anymore.
The final stage became especially concerning when international travel arrangements appeared to be driven almost entirely by minimising cost rather than respecting candidate time. I was initially presented with exhausting connecting-flight itineraries that would have resulted in spending nearly as much time in airports and on planes as in the actual interview itself.
Most concerning, however, was the leadership shown throughout the process. For a company hiring senior talent, I expected significantly stronger coordination, communication, and ownership from the Product leadership function. Instead, the experience felt reactive, improvised, and at times unnecessarily confrontational when reasonable concerns were raised.
A recruitment process reflects how a company operates internally. If this is the level of organisation and candidate treatment during hiring, applicants should think carefully before investing substantial time into the process.
There may be strong engineers and an interesting technical mission inside the company, but the hiring process urgently needs operational maturity, clearer leadership, and far more respect for candidate time.
One of the biggest red flags during the process was that the position itself appeared to change mid-recruitment, yet this was never formally communicated in writing. I had to stop the process and explicitly ask for clarity on whether I was still interviewing for the original role I had applied for.
For a senior-level product recruitment process, that level of ambiguity is unacceptable. Roles, expectations, and reporting structures should be clearly defined before asking candidates to commit weeks of time and multiple assessment stages.
Equally concerning was the lack of internal alignment throughout the interview process. Multiple interviewers seemed unaware of my background, the context of the conversation, or even why the interview had been scheduled. At times it felt like different parts of the company were running entirely separate hiring processes without coordination.
That lack of preparation becomes especially difficult to overlook when candidates are simultaneously being asked to complete extensive assessments, tasks, and international travel arrangements.
The experience gave the impression of a leadership team attempting to scale hiring processes without first establishing the operational discipline and communication standards needed to support them properly.
