Shield AI

Embedded Software Engineer Interview Experience

August 28, 2021

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I applied online. The process took one week.

Screening interview with HR followed by a HackerRank coding test.
The HackerRank test consisted of four questions: one very easy, two barely legible, and one that actually gave no instructions.

I had 90 minutes to complete these, and a good 45 of those minutes were spent trying to understand the problem statements. The worst part was that none of the questions were relevant to the job I applied for. Like many of these terrible online coding exams, no partial credit is given.

Questions

There were several questions on HackerRank, ranging in difficulty from "literally type what I tell you to" to "solve for this random pattern and then implement it in code" and even "make functions to parse these emails, but we won't tell you what the functions are supposed to do".

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 2 interview experiences for the Shield AI Embedded Software Engineer role.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Shield AI's interview process for their Embedded Software Engineer roles is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral50%

Negative50%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Shield AI's Embedded Software Engineer interview process.

Shield AI Work Experiences

Awesome Company

Embedded Software Engineer • Current Employee

February 9, 2022

Pros: Given challenging commitments and asked to deliver. Able to ask anyone at the company about different parts of the software stacks. Awesome outlook for expansion of software products. Modern programming practices and cool feature development.

Cons: Sometimes pushed pretty hard but this is how you grow!

Awesome Company

Embedded Software Engineer • Current Employee

February 9, 2022

Pros: Given challenging commitments and asked to deliver. Able to ask anyone at the company about different parts of the software stacks. Awesome outlook for expansion of software products. Modern programming practices and cool feature development.

Cons: Sometimes pushed pretty hard but this is how you grow!

High pay and great benefits, but chaotic environment

Mechanical Design Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: High pay, great stocks, good time off plan

Cons: Unorganized, hectic, egos are hard to deal with

High pay and great benefits, but chaotic environment

Mechanical Design Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: High pay, great stocks, good time off plan

Cons: Unorganized, hectic, egos are hard to deal with

Bottom Rung Leadership all they way to the Top. Please do not apply here.

Mechanical Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Building UAV drones looks and sounds awesome. The VBAT is a tech marvel that is changing the world for the better. UAV's and drones have always been a passion of mine and it was so cool having a career in a field I was passionate about and seeing VBAT grow from humble beginnings.

Cons: From less than 50 employees when I joined, the company had a scrappy can do attitude and accomplished amazing feats with minimal resources. Now to close to 600 employees, Shield AI is now a corporate being, wealthy yes, but plagued with slow moving processes, endless meetings and almost nothing gets done. Management feels like they have a target on their back so they push their employees hard. This is enforced with mandatory 50hr workweek minimums with no overtime but a vague threat that time cards will be reviewed in performance evaluations. Management pushes unreasonable timelines crammed with useless feature additions that suck time and detract from the end result. Brining up or pushing back on the point that that what is being asked is pushing the project backwards gets you labeled as combative. I was told that my boss is right, even when he is not right, he is your boss, end of story. We had provided lunches at one point but they got taken away.

Bottom Rung Leadership all they way to the Top. Please do not apply here.

Mechanical Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Building UAV drones looks and sounds awesome. The VBAT is a tech marvel that is changing the world for the better. UAV's and drones have always been a passion of mine and it was so cool having a career in a field I was passionate about and seeing VBAT grow from humble beginnings.

Cons: From less than 50 employees when I joined, the company had a scrappy can do attitude and accomplished amazing feats with minimal resources. Now to close to 600 employees, Shield AI is now a corporate being, wealthy yes, but plagued with slow moving processes, endless meetings and almost nothing gets done. Management feels like they have a target on their back so they push their employees hard. This is enforced with mandatory 50hr workweek minimums with no overtime but a vague threat that time cards will be reviewed in performance evaluations. Management pushes unreasonable timelines crammed with useless feature additions that suck time and detract from the end result. Brining up or pushing back on the point that that what is being asked is pushing the project backwards gets you labeled as combative. I was told that my boss is right, even when he is not right, he is your boss, end of story. We had provided lunches at one point but they got taken away.

Awesome Company

Embedded Software Engineer • Current Employee

February 9, 2022

Pros: Given challenging commitments and asked to deliver. Able to ask anyone at the company about different parts of the software stacks. Awesome outlook for expansion of software products. Modern programming practices and cool feature development.

Cons: Sometimes pushed pretty hard but this is how you grow!

5.0
Awesome Company
Embedded Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Diego, CA
February 9, 2022
Pros: Given challenging commitments and asked to deliver. Able to ask anyone at the company about different parts of the software stacks. Awesome outlook for expansion of software products. Modern programming practices and cool feature development.
Cons: Sometimes pushed pretty hard but this is how you grow!

High pay and great benefits, but chaotic environment

Mechanical Design Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: High pay, great stocks, good time off plan

Cons: Unorganized, hectic, egos are hard to deal with

4.0
High pay and great benefits, but chaotic environment
Mechanical Design Engineer • Current Employee
Frisco, TX
June 9, 2026
Pros: High pay, great stocks, good time off plan
Cons: Unorganized, hectic, egos are hard to deal with

Bottom Rung Leadership all they way to the Top. Please do not apply here.

Mechanical Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Building UAV drones looks and sounds awesome. The VBAT is a tech marvel that is changing the world for the better. UAV's and drones have always been a passion of mine and it was so cool having a career in a field I was passionate about and seeing VBAT grow from humble beginnings.

Cons: From less than 50 employees when I joined, the company had a scrappy can do attitude and accomplished amazing feats with minimal resources. Now to close to 600 employees, Shield AI is now a corporate being, wealthy yes, but plagued with slow moving processes, endless meetings and almost nothing gets done. Management feels like they have a target on their back so they push their employees hard. This is enforced with mandatory 50hr workweek minimums with no overtime but a vague threat that time cards will be reviewed in performance evaluations. Management pushes unreasonable timelines crammed with useless feature additions that suck time and detract from the end result. Brining up or pushing back on the point that that what is being asked is pushing the project backwards gets you labeled as combative. I was told that my boss is right, even when he is not right, he is your boss, end of story. We had provided lunches at one point but they got taken away.

1.0
Bottom Rung Leadership all they way to the Top. Please do not apply here.
Mechanical Engineer • Former Employee
Frisco, TX
June 21, 2023
Pros: Building UAV drones looks and sounds awesome. The VBAT is a tech marvel that is changing the world for the better. UAV's and drones have always been a passion of mine and it was so cool having a career in a field I was passionate about and seeing VBAT grow from humble beginnings.
Cons: From less than 50 employees when I joined, the company had a scrappy can do attitude and accomplished amazing feats with minimal resources. Now to close to 600 employees, Shield AI is now a corporate being, wealthy yes, but plagued with slow moving processes, endless meetings and almost nothing gets done. Management feels like they have a target on their back so they push their employees hard. This is enforced with mandatory 50hr workweek minimums with no overtime but a vague threat that time cards will be reviewed in performance evaluations. Management pushes unreasonable timelines crammed with useless feature additions that suck time and detract from the end result. Brining up or pushing back on the point that that what is being asked is pushing the project backwards gets you labeled as combative. I was told that my boss is right, even when he is not right, he is your boss, end of story. We had provided lunches at one point but they got taken away.

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