An OpenAI Engineer Explains How She Was Employed in a Week

An engineer at OpenAI says the corporate’s hiring course of can transfer from first contact to a signed supply in every week.

Jerene Yang, a group lead for artificial information era at OpenAI, mentioned on an episode of the “AI Throughout Borders” podcast revealed Wednesday that her interview course of was “extraordinarily fast, extraordinarily environment friendly, and really no-nonsense.”

Yang joined OpenAI’s San Francisco workplace in October 2024. Earlier than OpenAI, she was a senior engineering supervisor at Google, the place she led Cloud Spanner and managed large-scale database techniques, in keeping with her LinkedIn profile.

Yang mentioned a recruiter reached out to her on a Monday a couple of position main a group that aligned together with her background. She agreed to an preliminary dialog, which befell the next day with the hiring supervisor and technical lead.

By Wednesday, Yang accomplished the total interview, which she mentioned ran from 9 a.m. to six p.m. She acquired a suggestion on Thursday and signed it the following day.

Yang mentioned one key a part of the method was an interview spherical generally known as a “technical deep dive” — or a “analysis dialogue” for research-focused roles.

Candidates can select a subject to debate with a researcher. For engineering candidates, that always means strolling by means of techniques they’ve constructed, explaining the issues they had been making an attempt to resolve, and describing the trade-offs behind key choices.

“You actually get to see the mind of your interviewer as nicely and the way a lot they learn about your space,” Yang mentioned.

Past technical abilities, Yang mentioned there may be one talent candidates should grasp in the event that they wish to work at OpenAI: being “brutally environment friendly” with their time.

With many initiatives underway, staff must focus solely on work the place their abilities supply a transparent benefit, she mentioned.

Yang added that candidates ought to lean closely on AI instruments and take into consideration activity automation.

Based on OpenAI’s interview information, candidates sometimes undergo résumé screening, introductory calls, skills-based assessments, and last interviews. The ultimate interviews sometimes span 4 to 6 hours over one or two days.

Interviews are designed to deal with candidates’ areas of experience and push them past their consolation zone, with an emphasis on problem-solving, communication, and collaboration, OpenAI mentioned.