Phone Screen:

Video call with an Engineering Manager. Questions focused on background and recent experiences, with some pointed behavioral/situational questions.

1st Onsite:

1st round was with an engineer. It included behavioral questions followed by questions on recent professional experiences. The interviewer also asked about my management and interviewing style.

2nd round was with a senior engineer. The first part was mostly behavioral, covering topics like building and growing teams, and recruiting and retaining developers. The second part involved a whiteboard coding problem. The focus was on coding ability rather than language semantics or API memorization. There was some back-and-forth, but I was able to provide two different approaches with working code, along with time and space complexity analysis.

3rd round was with the hiring manager. The first part was a deep dive into my most impactful recent project. The discussion became quite technical, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was clear my background and experiences aligned with the role. The discussion covered both high-level design and some implementation details in large-scale distributed systems. The second part of this round involved me asking questions to the hiring manager.

2nd Onsite:

1st round was with the VP for the organization. He asked about my management and leadership style, focusing on my impact as an Engineering Manager and how I run my teams.

2nd round was with an SVP. He probed my management style, ability to build and grow teams, and potential impact at C3.ai. There were also some culture fit questions. He kindly provided insight into C3.ai's business growth. I asked questions about the company roadmap and culture, which were patiently answered.

Offer:

A few days later, I had a conversation with the hiring manager with further questions. Subsequently, an offer was made. Although I had other companies (including some big-name ones) and another offer in the pipeline, I accepted this offer shortly after.

Closing Thoughts:

Several points stood out during the interview process and were key in my decision to accept the offer:

1. Technology: C3.ai is tackling interesting challenges in distributed computing with technologies that interest me. It seemed like a good time to join, as they are scaling both business and engineering.
2. Transparency: The hiring manager was very transparent about the hiring process, company culture, and roadmap, which I greatly appreciated.
3. People: I enjoyed the entire interview process, which often felt like discussions rather than interrogations. The coding and design questions were structured as collaborative problem-solving rather than expecting memorized answers. I found the hiring manager to be technically competent and passionate about his team's and the company's success. He patiently answered all my detailed questions and seemed like someone I would like to work for/with. The SVP's insight into the growth map was also an important factor.
4. Culture: C3.ai's cultural tenet of curiosity is evident in its encouragement of external learning programs. As a believer in lifelong learning, I found a clear alignment here.
5. CEO: Although I haven't met Tom Siebel, my interviewers conveyed an impression of prudent growth and a long-term vision for C3.ai. The company's policy of encouraging continuing education, even forgoing tax benefits to facilitate employee learning, reflects his support. This perspective is based on news articles, recorded talks, and conversations with interviewers.

The entire process, from start to finish, took about 2 months. The extended duration was mainly due to my logistical requirements, as C3.ai was very flexible with scheduling.

Why are you looking for a new job?

Whiteboard coding problem (medium difficulty level). [Provided working code with space and time complexity for two different approaches.]

Questions on engineering leadership, management, collaboration, recruiting, and retaining talent, etc. [If you have been in an Engineering Management role for a few years, this should be part of your job. There are really no right or wrong answers here. Some of this is also checking for culture fit.]

Deep dive discussion on a specific project in the distributed systems domain.

What do you know about C3.ai and why C3.ai?