Interview experience with Rivian
Their recruiter reached out and shared their calendar to book some time for introductory chat. First time, the recruiter called 3 hours earlier than what it was in the calendar, turned out they were in East and their calendar setting wasn’t quite right. Rescheduled to talk again. Second time, they called with almost zero introduction on what the job is or what team, the recruiter started with asking Elon Musk interview question: What is the hardest technical challenge you solved and how you did it? Then I had to start to explain technical l stuff to the recruiter for 10 minutes and after 10 minutes they gave a summary of what they understood which was completely wrong. Which at that point I was like this is pointless , that person has zero technical background. so gain I explained it in simpler terms for them and they pretended they understand by just saying “thanks, got it” My feeling is that they just want to copy Elon musk and Tesla and they also want to add self driving to their cars. They rejected based on that prescreening.. That was just a big red flag. Besides all the scheduling difficulties with them. #rivianautomotive
What role?
Recruiter reached out, said I was a good fit. Did the whole calendar scheduling link thing, but recruiter ended up calling 45mins late to the interview because they had a meeting overrun. Passed recruiter round, scheduled to speak with hiring manager next. Hiring manager calls in 5 mins late (okay, this I can let go cos ppl are busy), we do the whole interview and then at the end said they are looking for someone with more sw experience whereas I had more hw experience and they were not looking to fill that role as urgently. Whatever, I send out my thank yous the next day, no response. Day after, they send the automated rejection email. Also big red flags all around in their hiring process, and I am just appalled at their apparent time-wasting attitude. If I was never the right fit in the first place, don’t reach out, make me sit by the phone waiting each time we have a scheduled call, go through all that trouble to talk about my background, just to turn me away.
I can tell you that recruiters culture is not representative of engineering culture (they are heavily overworked rn). You will see when you get pass them and start talking to EM/ ICs. Sorry that it didn’t work out.
I passed the recruiter phone screen, then moved to the HM interview. HM dialed in 5 minutes late, which was not a major red flag. I passed to the 25 minute presentation and panel interview stage. Four panel members were supposed to attend the Zoom presentation. Only two actually connected, neither of which were the HM. One of the presentation attendees was a little hostile in his questions. I then had five interviews, most of which of which went well. The hostile presentation questioner was pretty decent and personable during the 45 minute 1:1 interview. A couple weeks later, I got a rejection call from the recruiter. Recruiter said the group liked me and they would keep me in mind for any future roles. A month later, they opened several similar roles in the same department, so I applied. Got a rejection email within 24 hours.
Facebook, what’s the point to switch to Rivian? It is doomed to be a failure considering the competitions in EV truck market. Also you will get peanuts compared to what you earn now
Was more interested to get into new role, probably management and also the location is south cal so better quality of life . I’m not big on remote work, prefer to go to office and has been in the bay for 6 years kind of tired of it. But I agree with you, I don’t think they have good leadership and won’t probably survive, they might end up on a niche market for recreational vehicles or off road. And I don’t think they would be successful building self driving . On compensation i was hoping to get 150k/yrrsu that multiply by 4 in a year but I don’t think that would happen, they are already looking for 70B mc which compared to Lucid is super high, so my guess is after the IPO they will sink “bigly”.
Rivian is not a tech company. Never jump from tech to nontech, you will find it a big mistake. I heard there are some decent tech companies in Irvine and I personally like the place compared to the Bay Area.
Also got contacted by a recruiter from Rivian. Scheduled phone screen. Recruiter cancelled 5 min before because he was stuck in a meeting. Rescheduled and this time he called on time. Recruiter seemed interested during phone call. Sent him my resume and got ghosted. How many times should you follow up before moving on? Is calling or emailing more effective?
I had a similar experience. My scheduling snafu happened during onsite. All initial screens were done on PT but onsite was during CT? Also right from the get go recruiter started subverting expectations on Salary saying don't expect FB level numbers. Not sure why was I wasting my time.
Lol sounds idiotic.