Process: Applied directly, recruiter reached out. Rounds 1-3 on phone, and Round 4 on-site. Mostly behavioral questions and some domain-specific experience.
- [R1] with VP – AI/ML Product Experience
- [R2] with CPO – Same + Professional Aspirations
- [R3] with Chief Architect (Co-founder): Behavioral
- [R4] with CEO (Co-founder): Random Questions – Pushed for weakness, existing work products
Areas of Improvement:
- All 4 interviewers started 15-60 minutes late. I had to contact recruiter each time to verify, because they don't send a calendar invite with interviewer. Each time, interviewer was busy in another meeting. 2 apologized, 2 didn't.
- When I arrived for my on-site interview (6pm on Friday), recruiter told me that there was 3 more candidates ahead of me. I started an hour late. Please respect candidate's time as well!
- Strange Last-minute Invite: I had a Friday off and was hanging out. At 3pm, recruiter called/emailed and asked if I want to come in by 6-7pm to meet the CEO. This wasn't scheduled at all, and I didn't even finish Round 3 yet. I declined. I've never seen a company do this.
- Reason for Rejection: VP & CPO saying they were excited for me, but CEO rejected me. The reason provided was (1) "Require technical BS/MS degree" (but I had a technical MS and VP/CPO vetted me), and (2) "Hire people with 7-9+ years of experience" (although job description says 5+ years). According to the recruiter, the CEO liked me but decided to enforce these new requirements. Recruiter apologized, saying they were surprised too, and they're going to update the JD. It was frustrating.
- Extras on CEO: When asked about recent internal challenges and learnings, he said the pandemic was difficult, and that he'd do nothing differently. When asked about external challenges (competitors, technical difficulty), he said there's none and the only challenge was macro uncertainty (elections and interest rates). Overall, he seemed all about aggressive SLG.