> I ask if he is the ML team lead. Turns out this absolute Chad is a mobile dev the client asked to interview candidates for the MLE role.
Some times I run into companies like this: The people you talk to are so visibly inexperienced that you can't comprehend how the company functions, let alone makes money.
Some times it's a zombie company. They received funding or got a windfall from some early business moves, hired a ton of people, and now they're floating through the industry transferring money from customers to salaries as long as they can while their customers slowly leave for better options.
Some times it's a company with horrible management skills. They promote people who play the game instead of doing the work. The person in charge of the ML initiative only wanted to say that they hired MLE people for a new ML initiative for their resume. They grabbed someone who wouldn't complain or talk back and gave them the job of interviewing MLE engineers. That person ChatGPT-ed some questions and ran through a list in each interview, knowing their job was to go through the motions. The interview filters out everyone who would hate that environment, selecting for more people who know that the name of the game is going through the motions and pretending to do work while avoiding getting fired.
I've had very few bad interviews, I've had very few interviews that didn't lead to offers, but I've declined a few. One was semi-recent and it was in in-person in-office interview but the CEO joined remotely. We chatted for a few minutes, then the COO came into the room and we began the interview. The CEO asked one question in the beginning, then the COO asked all the questions. The CEO sat on the screen like a lump. I felt weird, and asked him directly a few times if he had questions, he'd shake his head and gesture to the COO.
Later I got a call from the recruited saying the CEO was unhappy, that he felt "he couldn't get a word in edgewise" but he was willing to "give the interview another chance." I said I was sorry to hear that, and that if the CEO didn't feel he could speak up freely in a 3 person meeting then I wasn't the right fit for that environment.
The COO called me later, the truth was that everything I had said about future planning aligned with their previous CIO who had left after long disagreements with the CEO but that the board liked the plans and my resume. I said no thanks, that the CEO isn't someone I want to work with. If everyone has to constantly cater to the CEO and make sure he feels included, that's not a workplace, that's a kindergarten.
This feels similar to a recent interview experience I had in NYC.