The zoox recruiter reached out to me and explained the position. At that time, I was looking for an offer to negotiate my salary for another offer. After the typical phone call with the recruiter,
she said the next round is a take-home exam (they call it exercise.) That was a bit sketchy! Who gives a Sr. applicant with a Ph.D. and 5 years of experience a take-home exam! I asked to talk to the hiring manager first before we move any further. She refused and then I asked for a few weeks to think about it. To me, that was a red flag about the culture of the company and the position, but my goal was not getting a job there, but getting an offer to increase my negotiation power for another offer. Then I gave her the green light for the next step, and she shared the 5-hour take-home exam with a one-week deadline (I will explain it more in detail in the next section.) I submitted my results in less than a week. She reached out to me again and told me I was selected for the last round, which was the virtual on-sight interview.
The virtual on-sight interview had 6 rounds. In general, the process was a bit messy. They changed the timing multiple times and almost all sessions started late or even had interruptions from their side.
I believe I nailed all 6 sessions and frankly speaking the level of the questions was so low! I was not even challenged. That was supposed to be a Sr. position but some of the interviewers were below the Sr. level.
A day after the recruiter called and told me I was rejected. She mentioned the team is looking for a more "experienced" person. I thanked her and the team but I didn't believe what she said. I think that was just a template they tell everyone. The quality of the interview and level of questions was even lower than what I do when hiring interns. I think what happened was that in general in start-ups or young companies, the levels are shifted. What they call Staff, Google calls Jr. Therefore, even though the title was Sr. at zoox, they were not really looking for Sr. and I was simply overqualified. All in all, I did not have a good feeling about it from the very beginning. I did not want the job but just the offer. Maybe they read my mind 😅