I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Cruise (San Francisco, CA) in Nov 2018
Interview
A recruiter reached out to me. I responded, and she scheduled an initial phone screen. From that initial contact to the time I had an offer in hand was 5 weeks. Most of that time was spent waiting for people’s availability (mine and theirs). At each decision point, Cruise acted quickly and decisively. After I talked to the hiring manager on the phone they were in contact the same day to set up an on-site interview in San Francisco. The on-site was on a Friday. The following Monday they let me know they wanted to proceed to the offer stage. I had the written offer that Wednesday. These folks do not screw around.
The interview itself was a fairly standard 5 hour affair. I gave a presentation in the morning, followed by a pretty tough and far reaching technical interview that covered software architecture, development practice, and mathematical modeling. Then I had lunch with a couple engineers. After lunch I met with the hiring manager again and we talked about the role and also had some business/strategy discussion. After that was a code review. Then I talked to the recruiter again, and she asked me about compensation. I probably asked for too little. The company pays very well, at least by my standards.
On the whole I felt my interviewers were prepared and engaged and I look forward to working with them.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Cruise in May 2023
Interview
The recruiter initially reached out, and we scheduled a time to chat. Unfortunately, on the scheduled day, the recruiter was unable to attend the call. Upon reaching out, I learned that the recruiter had been laid off, so it was understandable they didn't make it.
After rescheduling with a different recruiter, our conversation about the company's situation and the role itself felt rather awkward. There were significant changes, including a lowered salary, a different location, and altered responsibilities compared to what was initially advertised. It became evident that the company was experiencing some turbulence.
I expressed to the recruiter that while I might be overqualified for the current role, I would still be open to considering other opportunities in the future. Given the turnover in leadership within the company, I now view this experience as a fortunate turn of events.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cruise (San Francisco, CA) in Mar 2021
Interview
Recruiter call for initial assessment and role interest.
Hiring manager call on skill mapping, opportunity and growth discussion.
Full loop interview rounds, 4 rounds broken down into technical, leadership and cultural fit.
Round up with hiring manager
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
4 rounds broken down into technical, leadership and cultural fit.
I applied online. I interviewed at Cruise (San Francisco, CA) in Oct 2020
Interview
I applied for 2 jobs there. The took weeks getting back to me. When they did, they asked me to interview for a different job. The interviewer asked me questions I could not answer and that were not relevant to the jobs I wanted. He said at the end of the interview that somebody would get back to me, but nobody ever did.
That's not a professional way to treat job candidates.