Cohere

Machine Learning Engineer Interview Experience

June 5, 2024

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Following an initial screening (where the interviewer was very kind and professional), I had a technical interview with the hiring manager for the model compression/efficiency team. The manager asked questions regarding my current role, prior experience, and projects. This was a very negative interview experience for several reasons:

The hiring manager yawned (several times) throughout the course of the interview with no apology, and completely lacked basic interpersonal skills.
Although this was for an ML engineer position, the hiring manager had no knowledge of ML whatsoever.
The manager had not done any review of my resume and asked very illogical and irrelevant questions (e.g., "why does your company do XYZ when company ABC exists?" -- as opposed to focusing on the skills and experiences necessary for the role). Such questions would perhaps be appropriate if interviewing for a high leadership position, e.g., CEO or Director.

In general, as a candidate, it is worth being prepared to be asked irrelevant questions to mitigate surprise. All members of the hiring team should be trained to exhibit some base level of professionalism. Although the initial screening was very cordial and professional, the same cannot be said for the next round.

Questions

Q1. Why does your company do XYZ when competitor company ABC exists?

Q2. What was your project at your current company?

Was this helpful?

Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Cohere Machine Learning Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Cohere's interview process for their Machine Learning Engineer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral0%

Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Cohere's Machine Learning Engineer interview process in United States.

Cohere Work Experiences

Great culture, interesting problems

Machine Learning Engineer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: - Supportive and fun culture - Interesting work - Well resourced

Cons: - Younger team in a competitive space

Great culture, interesting problems

Machine Learning Engineer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: - Supportive and fun culture - Interesting work - Well resourced

Cons: - Younger team in a competitive space

Toxic culture, gaslighting, but with snacks

AI Annotator • Former Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

October 31, 2025

Pros: The dog is the friendliest person in the office.

Cons: At first, this job seemed great. Our manager was supportive, and we genuinely felt valued. Unfortunately, about a year in, something changed — possibly due to funding issues — and the whole atmosphere shifted. We started being timed on our work, with every minute tracked and any discrepancies questioned. We had to invoice using different codes for countless tiny projects, which meant more time spent tracking tasks than actually doing meaningful work. We were even told we couldn’t charge for toilet breaks. The creative and interesting work we were hired to do gradually turned into repetitive, monotonous tasks that were impossible to focus on. There was no proper training, and new projects were thrown at us without explanation or guidance. We were assured there would be plenty of work, but by mid-2025, it started drying up. Only then did we discover that we were actually on zero-hours contracts — something that had been disguised in all earlier communications. Management handled the situation poorly, dragging things out for months instead of being honest with us. It all ended with an awkward video call from someone none of us had ever met, telling us our “human evaluation” work was no longer needed. No thanks, no acknowledgment, no empathy — just a cold dismissal. I worked there for two and a half years. I’ve never been treated so poorly in my entire career. If you value your mental health or professional integrity, stay far away from this company. No one seems to know what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t value their staff.

Toxic culture, gaslighting, but with snacks

AI Annotator • Former Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

October 31, 2025

Pros: The dog is the friendliest person in the office.

Cons: At first, this job seemed great. Our manager was supportive, and we genuinely felt valued. Unfortunately, about a year in, something changed — possibly due to funding issues — and the whole atmosphere shifted. We started being timed on our work, with every minute tracked and any discrepancies questioned. We had to invoice using different codes for countless tiny projects, which meant more time spent tracking tasks than actually doing meaningful work. We were even told we couldn’t charge for toilet breaks. The creative and interesting work we were hired to do gradually turned into repetitive, monotonous tasks that were impossible to focus on. There was no proper training, and new projects were thrown at us without explanation or guidance. We were assured there would be plenty of work, but by mid-2025, it started drying up. Only then did we discover that we were actually on zero-hours contracts — something that had been disguised in all earlier communications. Management handled the situation poorly, dragging things out for months instead of being honest with us. It all ended with an awkward video call from someone none of us had ever met, telling us our “human evaluation” work was no longer needed. No thanks, no acknowledgment, no empathy — just a cold dismissal. I worked there for two and a half years. I’ve never been treated so poorly in my entire career. If you value your mental health or professional integrity, stay far away from this company. No one seems to know what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t value their staff.

Hostile, Rude, Unprofessional Team

Senior Quality Specialist • Former Employee

New York, New York, United States

Pros: None. The team is rude, unprofessional, and completely unfit to run a company, let alone one operating in Canada. There’s a shocking lack of accountability, respect, and basic communication standards.

Cons: Absolutely unacceptable experience. The moment you offer any constructive feedback, they respond with malice and hostility, retaliating by removing you from the project without warning. Instead of professionalism, you get vindictiveness. On top of that, they are incredibly rude and unprofessional—shutting down your email and cutting off communication without so much as a notice or explanation. The lack of basic respect and courtesy is astounding. This is not how you treat people. Avoid at all costs.

Hostile, Rude, Unprofessional Team

Senior Quality Specialist • Former Employee

New York, New York, United States

Pros: None. The team is rude, unprofessional, and completely unfit to run a company, let alone one operating in Canada. There’s a shocking lack of accountability, respect, and basic communication standards.

Cons: Absolutely unacceptable experience. The moment you offer any constructive feedback, they respond with malice and hostility, retaliating by removing you from the project without warning. Instead of professionalism, you get vindictiveness. On top of that, they are incredibly rude and unprofessional—shutting down your email and cutting off communication without so much as a notice or explanation. The lack of basic respect and courtesy is astounding. This is not how you treat people. Avoid at all costs.

Great culture, interesting problems

Machine Learning Engineer • Former Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: - Supportive and fun culture - Interesting work - Well resourced

Cons: - Younger team in a competitive space

5.0
Great culture, interesting problems
Machine Learning Engineer • Former Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
April 30, 2024
Pros: - Supportive and fun culture - Interesting work - Well resourced
Cons: - Younger team in a competitive space

Toxic culture, gaslighting, but with snacks

AI Annotator • Former Employee

London, England, United Kingdom

October 31, 2025

Pros: The dog is the friendliest person in the office.

Cons: At first, this job seemed great. Our manager was supportive, and we genuinely felt valued. Unfortunately, about a year in, something changed — possibly due to funding issues — and the whole atmosphere shifted. We started being timed on our work, with every minute tracked and any discrepancies questioned. We had to invoice using different codes for countless tiny projects, which meant more time spent tracking tasks than actually doing meaningful work. We were even told we couldn’t charge for toilet breaks. The creative and interesting work we were hired to do gradually turned into repetitive, monotonous tasks that were impossible to focus on. There was no proper training, and new projects were thrown at us without explanation or guidance. We were assured there would be plenty of work, but by mid-2025, it started drying up. Only then did we discover that we were actually on zero-hours contracts — something that had been disguised in all earlier communications. Management handled the situation poorly, dragging things out for months instead of being honest with us. It all ended with an awkward video call from someone none of us had ever met, telling us our “human evaluation” work was no longer needed. No thanks, no acknowledgment, no empathy — just a cold dismissal. I worked there for two and a half years. I’ve never been treated so poorly in my entire career. If you value your mental health or professional integrity, stay far away from this company. No one seems to know what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t value their staff.

1.0
Toxic culture, gaslighting, but with snacks
AI Annotator • Former Employee
London, England, United Kingdom
October 31, 2025
Pros: The dog is the friendliest person in the office.
Cons: At first, this job seemed great. Our manager was supportive, and we genuinely felt valued. Unfortunately, about a year in, something changed — possibly due to funding issues — and the whole atmosphere shifted. We started being timed on our work, with every minute tracked and any discrepancies questioned. We had to invoice using different codes for countless tiny projects, which meant more time spent tracking tasks than actually doing meaningful work. We were even told we couldn’t charge for toilet breaks. The creative and interesting work we were hired to do gradually turned into repetitive, monotonous tasks that were impossible to focus on. There was no proper training, and new projects were thrown at us without explanation or guidance. We were assured there would be plenty of work, but by mid-2025, it started drying up. Only then did we discover that we were actually on zero-hours contracts — something that had been disguised in all earlier communications. Management handled the situation poorly, dragging things out for months instead of being honest with us. It all ended with an awkward video call from someone none of us had ever met, telling us our “human evaluation” work was no longer needed. No thanks, no acknowledgment, no empathy — just a cold dismissal. I worked there for two and a half years. I’ve never been treated so poorly in my entire career. If you value your mental health or professional integrity, stay far away from this company. No one seems to know what they’re doing, and they certainly don’t value their staff.

Hostile, Rude, Unprofessional Team

Senior Quality Specialist • Former Employee

New York, New York, United States

Pros: None. The team is rude, unprofessional, and completely unfit to run a company, let alone one operating in Canada. There’s a shocking lack of accountability, respect, and basic communication standards.

Cons: Absolutely unacceptable experience. The moment you offer any constructive feedback, they respond with malice and hostility, retaliating by removing you from the project without warning. Instead of professionalism, you get vindictiveness. On top of that, they are incredibly rude and unprofessional—shutting down your email and cutting off communication without so much as a notice or explanation. The lack of basic respect and courtesy is astounding. This is not how you treat people. Avoid at all costs.

1.0
Hostile, Rude, Unprofessional Team
Senior Quality Specialist • Former Employee
New York, New York, United States
April 4, 2025
Pros: None. The team is rude, unprofessional, and completely unfit to run a company, let alone one operating in Canada. There’s a shocking lack of accountability, respect, and basic communication standards.
Cons: Absolutely unacceptable experience. The moment you offer any constructive feedback, they respond with malice and hostility, retaliating by removing you from the project without warning. Instead of professionalism, you get vindictiveness. On top of that, they are incredibly rude and unprofessional—shutting down your email and cutting off communication without so much as a notice or explanation. The lack of basic respect and courtesy is astounding. This is not how you treat people. Avoid at all costs.

Copyright © Taro