I had two rounds of interviews for this position. The first was with the recruiter, which was alright, just some typical HR questions. The recruiter seemed cool, besides the fact that he had an AI-generated picture for his LinkedIn profile pic.

The second round was awful. I interviewed with a person who graduated from college a year ago. I am not questioning his ability or qualifications as an engineer; I am just saying that he was a horrible interviewer. I was scheduled for a 45-60 minute interview, but he said he had to leave after 33 minutes. That was the least of it.

In the beginning of the interview, he asked me to give an elevator pitch about myself. However, he kept interrupting me and did not actually let me finish my introduction. Then he asked me about my specific experience, and again, he would cut me off in the middle of sentences. Sometimes he wouldn’t even let me finish and would just jump to what he wanted to ask next.

Then it was the technical portion, which, again, he would just jump to conclusions and not let me actually give full answers. The last part of the interview was him letting me ask my questions, which is typical for an interview. What was not typical was that he would not let me finish all the questions I had until he said he had to leave early.

In the very end, he asked me if I would still want to work at SpaceX if I only had five years to live. What kind of interview question is that to be asked?

The whole second interview was just horrible, and I did my best with the interviewer I was given. However, the last question gave me the vibe that if you are not willing to overwork and die (figuratively for the dying part) for a billionaire who believes his employees need to work 80 hours a week, there is no way you will get a job there.

I also really think that SpaceX needs to do more training for its employees and engineers who are conducting interviews, and not just let someone with little to no interviewing experience ruin someone else’s career opportunity.

Would you still work at SpaceX if you only have 5 years left to live?