Office: Lexington (formerly Copious Imaging, now Anduril Imaging)
Rounds: 3 -> phone screen, team member, onsite
TLDR: Great interview process, wonderful conversations, poor internal management of the open role. Completed the full interviewing process and waited weeks for a response to learn that they hired internally for the role last-minute.
I first spoke with a talent member about the role for the general phone screening questions and confirmations: 5-days onsite, general role requirements, what the team structure looks like, etc. Nothing out of the blue, great conversation.
The second interview was with a team member (not the hiring manager) that did the vibe check and some general technical background discussions. Didn't do any whiteboarding or problem solving, but discussed my previous experiences and some technical clarifications. For example, I mentioned that I had designed a board with a multi-stage switching regulator topology, and he asked about general design practices, and/or how I'd go about designing a buck converter.
The third and final interview was an onsite visit, where I prepared a short presentation containing a general background slide, a slide on my interest in working at Anduril, and a few additional slides detailing some of my previous projects/achievements. This was followed by Q&A (about 15-20 folks on the zoom call as well as 3 employees in the room with me). I stayed in the room I was guided to after the tour for the remaining duration of the onsite. After the presentation, I spoke with two EEs about technical concepts and design principles (no whiteboarding), two systems engineers for engineering principles and behavioral evaluation, and lastly a member of management that I'd be interacting with, but not always directly. All in all it was very smooth and went quite well.
Here is where things get unfortunate: I had an offer from another company, notified the hiring team, and they asked me to delay my decision for one week. This is a pretty significant extension, but the offering company allowed it. It should be noted that the hiring team told me that "things are looking positive" on this call.
The decision day came and went. I already declined the previous offer as I wasn't interested, but I was surprised to be left hanging. Wed-Fri passes, still with no answer. After the weekend, I sent an email EOD Monday to ask for correspondence, and I was immediately called back.
The hiring staff started by expressing continued interest in me, saying that the team "loves you and really wants to get you in", then continued to explain that an internal hire was eyeing the role, and they will be moving forward with them.
I completely understand that companies can hire internally, but there should be a "point of no return", if you will, regarding communication with a potential external candidate. Do not give false hope to a candidate that has already invested several hours into the interview process if you are going to rugpull at the last minute.
What I would have liked to see, was an email or call after the interview process simply stating "nothing", i.e. "we are currently evaluating other candidates and we will get back to you with an answer". Don't give me dates, don't say things are "looking positive". Communicate with me once, after you make your decision, stating "we have moved forward with another candidate, but we really like you. If we have more roles open in the future, we will contact you first", or something along those lines.
I am sure that Anduril Imaging is a wonderful place to work, and from my interviews I got a sense that they are a well-oiled machine, with many happy employees. I would like to see them work on the communication principles their hiring staff utilize.