I was a passive job seeker and was approached by Databricks. I really loved the product and respected the co-founders. However, the interview experience was a disaster and was a red flag for me regarding the company culture. I decided to stop the process.

In one of the sessions, the interviewer (an engineering director) was late by 5-6 minutes. He did not apologize or explain his lateness. Without even asking me for an introduction, he began to read from his interview question list. I could see that he had already drawn a conclusion on this session within the first 5 minutes of the conversation; he constantly interrupted me. His facial expression showed that he did not believe anything I said.

I feel sorry that both this interviewer and I wasted an hour of our lives. Life is precious. Stay away from pretentious people.

General questions on engineering management.