Open Interview Process and Expectations

My best interview advice? Know your audience. Don’t just prepare for questions. Prepare for what each interviewer 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 to hear to move you forward. Every person in the process has a different priority. Here’s how to think about it: 👇 --- 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵? The recruiter’s job is to filter out misaligned candidates. They’re checking: - Do you have the right experience? - Do your salary expectations fit (given your exp)? If they can’t quickly see you’re a fit, you won’t move forward. Connect the dots for them—don’t make them work for it! --- 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗽 𝘂𝗽 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝘆? Hiring managers don’t just want qualified candidates. They need someone who can: - Learn fast and adapt - Start driving results with minimal hand-holding This is where your past success stories matter most! Come prepared with 3-5 strong ones. --- 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂? It’s not just about being likable. They want: - A reliable, competent collaborator - Someone who carries their weight - A culture fit (easy to work with) Make it clear that you’ll add value—not extra work or drama 😅 --- 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀: 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺? Panelists are assessing: - Clear communication - Confidence under pressure - Storytelling skills Be prepared to ask questions and keep their attention. Clear, confident delivery is crucial! --- 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? Executives think big picture. They’re wondering: - Are you a risk? - Will you elevate the team? - Can you drive long-term success? Do deep research, be bold, and come ready to handle possible concerns. 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘆 "𝘆𝗲𝘀." It will help you prioritize your prep and nail your interviews 👌

Most companies won't tell candidates their burn rate, equity percentage, or why they lose to competitors. It's a serious red flag. Leading with transparency is your BEST opportunity to build trust with candidates. Here are my 6 biggest pieces of advice for any company that wants to hire better talent through radical honesty: 1. Share the real equity math Don't just say "10,000 options." Share the fully diluted percentage, strike price, 409A date, vesting schedule, and refresh policy. Include expected dilution from future pool top-ups. Candidates betting their career on you deserve to know what their stake actually means. No denominators means no trust. 2. Name who beats you and why Every company loses deals. Be honest about which competitors win against you and why. Share your competitive weaknesses openly. Candidates respect honesty. The ones who still join become your strongest believers because they chose you knowing the truth. 3. Show your manager reality Who's the hiring manager? What's their span of control? Team size? Attrition in the last 12 months? Candidates don't just join companies. They join teams, and teams have managers. When managers are the problem, people leave. Share the relationship upfront. 4. Create a Role Briefing For serious candidates, share a role brief with role success metrics (30/60/90), org chart for their team, comp ranges with equity percentage, and interview process with timeline. For finalists, add relevant company finances (last raise, runway) and top product/market challenges. This eliminates most back-and-forth questions. 5. Explain the work cadence Expected meeting load per week. Core hours and timezone requirements. On-call rotations. Travel frequency. And yes: weekend work reality. Too many companies hide the actual workload until after an offer is signed. Share these things upfront. No surprises. 6. Open reverse references Offer unchaperoned access to peers two levels away. Let candidates talk to people who actually do the work. This is the ultimate transparency test. Most companies fail it. The ones who pass it close their top choices. SCORECARD: Rate yourself 0/1 per area - Equity math with FD percentage - Manager and team info - Competitive losses shared - Work cadence reality - Transparent role briefing - Reverse references offered Score 4/6 or higher? You're ahead of most companies. Where else do you think companies should be transparent? Tell me what I’m missing? 👇

Pay attention to how you're treated in the interview process. Because if it’s bad now, it won’t get better later. It might sound obvious, but it needs repeating: the interview process is a two-way street. And when a recruiter is involved? It’s a throuple. I still hear too many stories of hiring processes that are disorganised, disrespectful, or just plain lazy. Here’s the thing: applying for a role isn’t just the employer’s chance to assess you, it’s your chance to assess them. Their commitment to communication, preparation, and respect says a lot about how they treat people once they’re on the inside. And if a recruiter is involved, make sure your prospective employer knows (good or bad) the experience. (1) Communication sets the tone From the first email to the final outcome, how they engage tells you everything you need to know. Clear and timely? That’s a good sign. Ghosting, vague updates, and long delays? Big red flag. Abort. And it’s not just a rare misstep. It’s endemic. To such an extent that companies now exist to benchmark who consistently gets this wrong. (2) The interview is their culture in micro. How you’re treated during the interview often mirrors the company’s culture. Do interviewers show up on time? Are they engaged and prepared? Do they ask thoughtful questions and give you time to respond in kind? If it’s disorganised or impersonal now, it’s probably not going to change once you’re in the door. (3) It's not just courtesy, it's good business. Let’s be clear: returning calls and being respectful shouldn’t be revolutionary. It’s basic decency. But it’s also smart business. Why would someone want to join your team if you can’t be bothered to follow through? (4) It helps you decide. Paying attention to how you’re treated gives you confidence in accepting an offer or walking away. A strong interview experience fosters trust that the company can deliver on its promises. So what should you watch out for? -- Punctuality: Are they prepared and respectful of your time? -- Engagement: Are the questions meaningful or just box-ticking? -- Communication: Are timelines and expectations clear? -- Environment: Does the culture match what’s being sold? -- Feedback: Are you learning something, or just being assessed? An interview isn’t just about being chosen, it’s about choosing well. How they treat you during the process reveals a great deal about how they lead, manage, and support their people. So ask questions. Take note. Trust your gut. Because your time and energy matter too.

I recently spoke with a candidate who pursued an opportunity on her own but ultimately withdrew her candidacy right before the final interview due to several red flags she noticed along the way. She was the firm’s top pick. She shared that this wasn’t the first time she made such a decision. If she consistently sees certain issues during the process, she would rather respect her time and step away than move forward. Red flags included: – Constant rescheduling of interviews with little notice – Interviewers showing up late or unprepared – Negative comments about current or former employees – Lack of transparency around compensation or advancement opportunities – A chaotic or disorganized process with no clear next steps – Disrespectful behavior toward staff during the candidate’s visit – Pressure to make quick decisions without enough information – Avoiding questions about workload, turnover, or firm culture – Focusing only on billable hours without mentioning professional development or work-life balance – Inconsistent messaging from different people about the role or culture – Unclear responsibilities and expectations – Dismissive or rushed communication The hiring process is a direct reflection of the firm. If respect and professionalism are not shown to candidates, why would it suddenly improve once they are on the team? At the end of the day, both firms and candidates are evaluating each other. The best matches happen when respect, transparency, and professionalism go both ways.

In the last 10 years, I've applied to almost all the MAANG+ companies for Cloud & DevOps positions:  - Applied Twice at Google - Applied to Microsoft (Cleared 3 rounds) - Applied to Amazon Twice - Applied to Meta (for Production Engineer_ - Had a chance to sit in for the SRE interview at Apple Each time, I went through the hiring processes, I learned a lot from my experiences regarding industry standards & my skills. Here are my learnings from all the interviews (insights that are rarely talked about)  1. Confidence Opens Doors - Walk in with confidence, but back it up with examples from your work.   – Show them how you’ve done similar things before or learned fast on the job.  - Give specific examples of how you created solutions, the more detail you give, the more genuine you seem  2. Talk Out Loud: They Care About Your Thinking Process   - Coding rounds are less about the final answer and more about how you think.   - Always explain why you chose this algorithm, data structure, or approach.  - Example: If I ask you to sort a linked list and array, explain how you’d handle each input without hardcoding.   3. Problem-Solving >>> Memorization   - You won’t be asked standard questions all the time. –They want to see if you can break down problems into smaller steps.   – Focus on understanding the problem statement first.   - Example: At Google, questions often started vague, like “Optimize Spark performance.” You had to ask questions to clarify the scope before jumping in.   4. Business Impact > Fancy Code  - Interviewers love candidates who think about real-world impact, how their work improves systems, reduces costs, or handles failures.  - Don’t just explain your code. Say, “This approach scales better because…” or “This method reduces downtime during outages.”   5. Expect Tricky Questions & Learn to Adapt   - You’ll get questions that test your ability to learn on the go.   - They don’t expect you to know everything but want to see if you can stay calm, ask the right questions, and figure things out.  - Example: Amazon asked about migrating hot and cold storage. Even without prior experience, the key was breaking the problem into steps and proposing ideas.   6. Failures Are Normal, Show How You Recover  - Big Tech doesn’t expect perfect systems, they expect fail-safes.   - Prepare examples where something failed, and you recovered quickly.  - Example: They asked about a time when servers went down during peak hours. My answer focus was on how recovery systems reduced downtime instead of avoiding failures completely.   7. Simplify Your Approach. Don’t Overcomplicate   - Many candidates try to impress with complex answers and overengineered solutions. Don’t.   - Focus on clarity and efficiency. Explain why you’re choosing one approach over another.  - Example: For a database optimization question, start with indexing strategies before diving into custom caching layers.  Continued in the comments ↓

Filling an open role is one of the best - and most dangerous - parts of leadership. It’s exciting. A chance to bring in fresh energy, new ideas, and a different perspective. The right hire can be a game-changer. But so can the wrong one. When you’re hiring, you may feel pressure to move fast. Find someone who can ramp ASAP: a competitor, an internal transfer, maybe a referral. Fill the seat before finance takes the headcount away. Go, go, go. But every time I’ve hired that way, I’ve regretted it. Shortcuts make you ignore red flags. And when you bring in someone who isn’t the right fit, you pay for it - in culture, in credibility, and (most of all) in your time and attention. Bad hires become performance-management cases, and they will drain the life out of you. So how do you avoid this? You test for what you can’t teach: self-awareness, openness, coachability, and drive. At least one interview should focus entirely on this. Ask open-ended prompts, then shut up. Let candidates talk about wins and mistakes, how they like to be led, how they handle feedback, and where they want to grow. Give them the chance to ask lots of questions, too - those are just as revealing. This kind of interview can be tough for newer managers because it’s not about skills, it’s about how someone sees themselves in relation to the world around them. If their “win” story is all about solo heroics, teamwork may be a challenge. If their “failure” story is about something that happened to them, accountability might be. If they describe how a former manager “wronged” them, you’ll probably be the next one. Even experienced hiring managers can get dazzled by a candidate who “knows the space” or was recommended by a friend. They can still miss what really matters. This type of interview helps more than I can possibly say. Move fast. Be decisive. But remember to stop talking about skills and start talking about self-awareness at some point. You can still bet wrong, but you’ll see the table more clearly. And for candidates: if you can demonstrate that you’re open, driven, self-aware, and have high accountability, you’re what we’re all looking for. If you aren’t prompted to share those attributes through the interview process, ask the hiring manager how they build a self-aware, highly coachable team. They should have an answer, and it should open the door for you to talk about how you show up. If not, that’s a red flag! Good luck out there to everyone hiring and searching. There are tons of amazing people on the market right now. May we all find the right fit.

Want to crack OpenAI interviews? Start preparing like an AI engineer—not a “toy RAG builder.” Most people know: ✅ OpenAI API ✅ LangChain chatbot ✅ Vector DB (Pinecone / FAISS) But in real interviews they ask: 🔹 Design a multilingual enterprise RAG pipeline 🔹 Optimize retrieval latency for 100M+ documents 🔹 Implement hybrid search + query understanding 🔹 Build production guardrails to reduce hallucinations And that’s where most candidates freeze. Because they only built toy demos. ✅ The real gap isn’t “RAG”… It’s end-to-end RAG System Design. Top candidates think differently: ✅ Instead of: “I’ll just embed docs & retrieve” They ask: ➡️ How do I chunk optimally? handle multilingual docs? prevent semantic drift? ✅ Instead of: “I’ll store vectors in Pinecone” They ask: ➡️ What’s my tiered storage (hot/cold) strategy + caching plan? ✅ Instead of: “LLM will answer from context” They ask: ➡️ How do I add rerankers, confidence scoring, and hallucination control? ✅ Instead of: “Just use GPT-4” They ask: ➡️ How do I route queries cost-aware? open-source first → GPT fallback? 🔥 How to prepare for OpenAI interviews from scratch (my roadmap) 1) Master RAG core (not frameworks) ✅ Chunking strategies ✅ Metadata filtering ✅ Query rewriting ✅ Cross-lingual embeddings 2) Train on enterprise-scale architecture ✅ Hybrid search (BM25 + Dense) ✅ Rerankers (cross-encoders) ✅ Sharding & replication (vector DB scaling) ✅ Caching + tiered retrieval 3) Production guardrails = must-have ✅ Prompt injection defense ✅ Safety filters + policies ✅ Grounding checks ✅ Hallucination detection + fallback response 4) Monitoring + evaluation wins offers ✅ Retrieval quality tracking ✅ Query drift detection ✅ Cost per request + latency SLAs ✅ Offline + online evaluation pipelines 🎯 Practice scenarios I’m solving 1️⃣ Multilingual RAG pipeline design 2️⃣ Hybrid retrieval + reranking architecture 3️⃣ High-traffic RAG caching + cost optimization 4️⃣ Guardrails + hallucination control in production 5️⃣ Agentic workflows using LangGraph / n8n ✅ Most fail because they focus on the model. ✅ Those who win show system design thinking. If you’re preparing for OpenAI / FAANG AI interviews, comment “RAG” and I’ll share my prep checklist + mock design questions 🔥 Follow: Santhosh Bandari #AI #OpenAI #RAG #GenAI #LangChain #VectorDatabase #SystemDesign #MachineLearning #MLOps #InterviewPrep #LLM #AgenticAI

Great companies w/ exceptional leaders can still struggle to recruit top talent. A great reputation only gets them a ticket to the dance related to recruiting the best of the best....it gets them in the door. But reputation alone will not compel a top talent to bet the next 4-5 years of their career on that company. The experience that individual has during the interview process will be the determining factor. Here are some items that routinely derail recruitment...even at the most desirable of companies (in no specific order): 1. Unclear or constantly changing job specs. If the comp, responsibilities, reporting structure, travel requirements are perpetually shifting during the process, this is a red flag for top performers. 2. A 5PM traffic like process. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. If companies are pausing the role, then restarting, then pausing again...this sends any number of signals to the individual, none of which are positive. 3. Unnecessarily long interview process. A diligent process is responsible. A redundant process is wreckless. 4. Non-stakeholders involved in the interview process. Does the CFO really need to meet the prospective Clinical Associate? 5. Unprepared interviewers. This is a common complaint I hear from top talent. If they are taking time away from the role they are actively engaged in to prepare for this meeting, they expect the interviewer to do the same. 6. Bait and switch. Even if it is unintentional. If the offer will be materially different from what was shared with the candidate at the beginning of the process, this should be shared asap in the process, with a clear explanation why. This is not an exhaustive list. But it hits the high points. The good thing is, w/ a minimal amount of planning and intentionality, most of these are avoidable. Getting comp. approved on the front end, establishing an interview team, developing a goal for each interview, and even setting a target date of completion can be very impactful. Candidates view the interview process as a sample of what it will be like to work there. They are paying attention to the details...just as interviewers are of the candidates.

Ryan Babiuch asked me about my #interview process. I was planning to write an article about this, but rather than just replying to his post, I thought it would be helpful to post my response here. When I interview a candidate for a #softwareengineering or #architecture role, I usually ask the candidate to design something based on a deliberately ill-defined problem. For example, “Design Twitter” - just that. Very open-ended, and with many unknowns (right CJ Barker?) Candidates often try to impress the interviewer by immediately trying to provide the best possible answer. This is impossible. If a candidate immediately jumps to design, that’s a concern. I want to see behaviors like these: 1. The candidate takes time to understand the problem and asks thoughtful clarifying questions.  2. They recognize, and ideally state, that there is no “right answer”. 3. When I (deliberately) make an incorrect statement, they’re not afraid to call me on it. 4. They can talk me through their design process, explaining the options they’re considering, and why they chose a particular one. 5. When they run into ambiguity, they ask me for clarification rather than making assumptions. 6. If they realize they made a poor decision earlier, they’re not afraid to admit it, backtrack, and move forward with a better choice. 7. They explain how they would validate their design with others, stating what kind of artifacts they’d produce for this purpose (e.g., an architecture diagram) and the categories of people they’d loop in. 8. When asked to map their design onto possible technology choices, they can enumerate them and talk about the pros and cons of their choices. 9. Since this is a whiteboard exercise, I want to see a completed and understandable design at the end of the process. 10. If they don’t know something, they freely admit it. 11. When I through a curveball that invalidates their design, they can pivot. Most of all, I want it to be a conversation, like we’re working on the solution together. I’m not only looking for solid technical decisions and a solution that might have a chance of working, but also how they communicate and collaborate. I never ask a software engineer candidate to write code. That’s like asking an author how to construct a paper book. You won’t learn anything about their creative process that way. Before setting the technical problem, I like to check to see how nervous the candidate is. If they seem anxious, I’ll spend more time just shooting the breeze and getting them to laugh. Nobody can give their best performance when they’re nervous, so my goal is to get them to a place where they can give their best. Finally, I’m known for reserving 10 minutes (or more) at the end of the interview to turn the tables and tell the candidate that they can “ask me anything”. I make a commitment to answer every question candidly, even things about the company or culture that I don’t like.

🌶️ Take: Giving candidates interview questions, or at least a clear idea of what to expect, is not an unfair advantage. It reflects how people actually work. Think about it…in most tech jobs, employees are rarely expected to solve problems without preparation. Whether it is writing code, presenting a strategy, or managing a team conflict, they typically have time to think, collaborate, and gather resources. So why are candidates held to a different standard in interviews? Giving candidates the exact questions, or at least a very clear idea of what to expect, does not dilute the process. It empowers them to succeed. That is the point…and it works. When I was at Going, we followed this approach. Candidates were given clear expectations, and yes, sometimes even the exact questions. The result was a strong quality of hire and a process that let candidates bring their best selves to the table. This proves that preparation enhances the process rather than weakens it. Here’s why this works: 1️⃣ It mirrors real work. Preparation is the norm on the job. Evaluating candidates in this way sets realistic expectations and builds trust. 2️⃣ It reduces anxiety. Interviews are stressful, and stakes are high for candidates. Providing clarity allows them to focus on showcasing their skills instead of second-guessing the process. 3️⃣ It levels the playing field. Clear expectations create an environment where all candidates can perform their best. This is particularly impactful for neurodiverse candidates or those who may excel when they have the space to demonstrate problem-solving skills instead of navigating unnecessary pressure. 4️⃣ It improves insights. When candidates know what to expect, they deliver thoughtful, meaningful answers. This gives you better data to make confident hiring decisions. Some worry that it gives candidates too much of an edge. However, if the goal is to find the best person for the job, doesn’t it make sense to give them the opportunity to show their full potential? Others argue it takes away from assessing quick thinking. This is where skilled interviewers shine. Thoughtful follow-ups and challenges can still evaluate real-time problem-solving without turning the process into a guessing game. Providing candidates with clear expectations, whether exact questions or a detailed framework, creates a fairer and more inclusive process. Even for roles involving ambiguity, providing context about challenges is key. Ambiguity on the job rarely exists in isolation. It comes with collaboration, resources, and time to strategize. Interviews should reflect that reality. At the end of the day, the best hires are not the ones who survive high-pressure, artificial scenarios. They are the ones who thrive when given the tools and space to succeed. What is your take? Should interviews mirror the real world, or is there still value in keeping candidates on their toes?