Flock Safety

Software Engineer Interview Experience

July 11, 2023

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I applied online. The process took 2 weeks.

I applied online twice, six months apart. The first time I interviewed, I made it to the hiring manager round, then never heard back from talent acquisition on feedback. The following is my second experience with Flock Safety.

Applied online again six months later. Talent acquisition remembered me and said that they were interested in bringing me on this time with an opportunity to learn on the job. They tried to convince me that they couldn't bring me on last time because they were looking for someone with the exact experience listed. I took the high road and expressed interest. Talent acquisition informed me that they would schedule a chat with the hiring manager.
I didn't hear back from talent acquisition for a week. Talent acquisition called me out of the blue in the middle of the workday to tell me that they forgot to send me an interview email invite, but that the interview they scheduled was in 15 minutes. I politely decline because I'm actually a software engineer who has a life and responsibilities also. They contacted me a few hours later to schedule another interview on short notice. I declined again and provided them my availability. For the second time, I never heard back from them. For whatever reason, they did not think I deserved respect or professional courtesy. This was after about 3 total hours of conversation with employees of Flock Safety. I can't understand why.

Questions

The process included general background and work history questions.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 5 interview experiences for the Flock Safety Software Engineer role.

Success Rate

20%

Pass Rate

Flock Safety's interview process for their Software Engineer roles is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive60%

Neutral0%

Negative40%

Candidates reported having good feelings for Flock Safety's Software Engineer interview process.

Flock Safety Work Experiences

Sinking ship! Toxic Culture

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: If you are looking for a stable paycheck and don't mind navigating a toxic environment, you might survive here. There are people here who do literally nothing, it would take a lot to get fired.

Cons: Leadership has fostered a toxic, highly political work culture where theatrics and politics are favored over actual technical deliverables. The engineering organization is filled with egomaniacs who would gladly let the product burn rather than admit they were wrong or accept a better solution. Because of widespread technical incompetence, the day-to-day reality is a never-ending stream of bugs and production fires. This constant firefighting makes it impossible to get ahead. Meetings have devolved into nothing more than performative arenas for people to try to one-up each other.

Sinking ship! Toxic Culture

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: If you are looking for a stable paycheck and don't mind navigating a toxic environment, you might survive here. There are people here who do literally nothing, it would take a lot to get fired.

Cons: Leadership has fostered a toxic, highly political work culture where theatrics and politics are favored over actual technical deliverables. The engineering organization is filled with egomaniacs who would gladly let the product burn rather than admit they were wrong or accept a better solution. Because of widespread technical incompetence, the day-to-day reality is a never-ending stream of bugs and production fires. This constant firefighting makes it impossible to get ahead. Meetings have devolved into nothing more than performative arenas for people to try to one-up each other.

Fast growing revenue, degrading technical management

Software Engineer • Current Employee

December 3, 2024

Pros: Growing stock value. Some good engineers (though some being pushed out due to conflict). Energetic CEO. Mission is okay but reducing in motivating value for staff as the business attempts to expand into tangential areas. Occasional paths to tech innovation.

Cons: Recent hiring has been poor. Reluctant to and/or incapable of removing poor performers. Bad project bets are cut off too late into the game. Little understanding of the long tail nature of engineer productivity/value and how that should affect hiring, compensation, and project allocation. Too many "yes men" and intolerance of conflicting opinions. Currently no road to IPO; stock liquidity options only for early employees. Lack of transparency, especially on HR/compensation issues.

Fast growing revenue, degrading technical management

Software Engineer • Current Employee

December 3, 2024

Pros: Growing stock value. Some good engineers (though some being pushed out due to conflict). Energetic CEO. Mission is okay but reducing in motivating value for staff as the business attempts to expand into tangential areas. Occasional paths to tech innovation.

Cons: Recent hiring has been poor. Reluctant to and/or incapable of removing poor performers. Bad project bets are cut off too late into the game. Little understanding of the long tail nature of engineer productivity/value and how that should affect hiring, compensation, and project allocation. Too many "yes men" and intolerance of conflicting opinions. Currently no road to IPO; stock liquidity options only for early employees. Lack of transparency, especially on HR/compensation issues.

Hero Culture, Backstabbing, Run Away

Software Engineer • Former Employee

January 13, 2026

Pros: The pay was decent. There was a $750 budget for the remote office setup. The benefits were so-so.

Cons: Major disconnect between C-suite and mid-level management, continuing downward to software engineering team. Both device firmware and cloud backend teams consistently deliver under-tested, buggy software which create continuous dumpster fires. Hero culture: Team member value depends upon who can grab the most high-visibility bugs to fix. Engineers compete for top hero spot. Will backstab to get out of responsibility for bugs, failures, crappy architectural decisions, etc. Not a lot of depth to the backend team, so architecture is crappy. Actual development tickets get less attention than the dumpster-fire-of-the-day issues. Endless weekly architecture/bug discussions, rehashing the same stuff from week to week. Not much actually happens, unless it's to address one of the weekly dumpster fires.

Hero Culture, Backstabbing, Run Away

Software Engineer • Former Employee

January 13, 2026

Pros: The pay was decent. There was a $750 budget for the remote office setup. The benefits were so-so.

Cons: Major disconnect between C-suite and mid-level management, continuing downward to software engineering team. Both device firmware and cloud backend teams consistently deliver under-tested, buggy software which create continuous dumpster fires. Hero culture: Team member value depends upon who can grab the most high-visibility bugs to fix. Engineers compete for top hero spot. Will backstab to get out of responsibility for bugs, failures, crappy architectural decisions, etc. Not a lot of depth to the backend team, so architecture is crappy. Actual development tickets get less attention than the dumpster-fire-of-the-day issues. Endless weekly architecture/bug discussions, rehashing the same stuff from week to week. Not much actually happens, unless it's to address one of the weekly dumpster fires.

Sinking ship! Toxic Culture

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: If you are looking for a stable paycheck and don't mind navigating a toxic environment, you might survive here. There are people here who do literally nothing, it would take a lot to get fired.

Cons: Leadership has fostered a toxic, highly political work culture where theatrics and politics are favored over actual technical deliverables. The engineering organization is filled with egomaniacs who would gladly let the product burn rather than admit they were wrong or accept a better solution. Because of widespread technical incompetence, the day-to-day reality is a never-ending stream of bugs and production fires. This constant firefighting makes it impossible to get ahead. Meetings have devolved into nothing more than performative arenas for people to try to one-up each other.

1.0
Sinking ship! Toxic Culture
Software Engineer • Current Employee
June 22, 2026
Pros: If you are looking for a stable paycheck and don't mind navigating a toxic environment, you might survive here. There are people here who do literally nothing, it would take a lot to get fired.
Cons: Leadership has fostered a toxic, highly political work culture where theatrics and politics are favored over actual technical deliverables. The engineering organization is filled with egomaniacs who would gladly let the product burn rather than admit they were wrong or accept a better solution. Because of widespread technical incompetence, the day-to-day reality is a never-ending stream of bugs and production fires. This constant firefighting makes it impossible to get ahead. Meetings have devolved into nothing more than performative arenas for people to try to one-up each other.

Fast growing revenue, degrading technical management

Software Engineer • Current Employee

December 3, 2024

Pros: Growing stock value. Some good engineers (though some being pushed out due to conflict). Energetic CEO. Mission is okay but reducing in motivating value for staff as the business attempts to expand into tangential areas. Occasional paths to tech innovation.

Cons: Recent hiring has been poor. Reluctant to and/or incapable of removing poor performers. Bad project bets are cut off too late into the game. Little understanding of the long tail nature of engineer productivity/value and how that should affect hiring, compensation, and project allocation. Too many "yes men" and intolerance of conflicting opinions. Currently no road to IPO; stock liquidity options only for early employees. Lack of transparency, especially on HR/compensation issues.

2.0
Fast growing revenue, degrading technical management
Software Engineer • Current Employee
December 3, 2024
Pros: Growing stock value. Some good engineers (though some being pushed out due to conflict). Energetic CEO. Mission is okay but reducing in motivating value for staff as the business attempts to expand into tangential areas. Occasional paths to tech innovation.
Cons: Recent hiring has been poor. Reluctant to and/or incapable of removing poor performers. Bad project bets are cut off too late into the game. Little understanding of the long tail nature of engineer productivity/value and how that should affect hiring, compensation, and project allocation. Too many "yes men" and intolerance of conflicting opinions. Currently no road to IPO; stock liquidity options only for early employees. Lack of transparency, especially on HR/compensation issues.

Hero Culture, Backstabbing, Run Away

Software Engineer • Former Employee

January 13, 2026

Pros: The pay was decent. There was a $750 budget for the remote office setup. The benefits were so-so.

Cons: Major disconnect between C-suite and mid-level management, continuing downward to software engineering team. Both device firmware and cloud backend teams consistently deliver under-tested, buggy software which create continuous dumpster fires. Hero culture: Team member value depends upon who can grab the most high-visibility bugs to fix. Engineers compete for top hero spot. Will backstab to get out of responsibility for bugs, failures, crappy architectural decisions, etc. Not a lot of depth to the backend team, so architecture is crappy. Actual development tickets get less attention than the dumpster-fire-of-the-day issues. Endless weekly architecture/bug discussions, rehashing the same stuff from week to week. Not much actually happens, unless it's to address one of the weekly dumpster fires.

1.0
Hero Culture, Backstabbing, Run Away
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Atlanta, GA
January 13, 2026
Pros: The pay was decent. There was a $750 budget for the remote office setup. The benefits were so-so.
Cons: Major disconnect between C-suite and mid-level management, continuing downward to software engineering team. Both device firmware and cloud backend teams consistently deliver under-tested, buggy software which create continuous dumpster fires. Hero culture: Team member value depends upon who can grab the most high-visibility bugs to fix. Engineers compete for top hero spot. Will backstab to get out of responsibility for bugs, failures, crappy architectural decisions, etc. Not a lot of depth to the backend team, so architecture is crappy. Actual development tickets get less attention than the dumpster-fire-of-the-day issues. Endless weekly architecture/bug discussions, rehashing the same stuff from week to week. Not much actually happens, unless it's to address one of the weekly dumpster fires.

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