Blue Origin Software Engineer interview questions

Advance requirements: Watch “Going to Space…” video. Powerpoint presentation. Writing assignment. 5 member interview team, all attended my presentation. They constantly interrupted my presentation with questions. The 1st section was intended to be an overview so it obviously contained resume accomplishments. It seemed they needed to “grill” me on the technical details of each and every item I planed to present on a HIGH level. This of course wasted time intended for my “deep dive” section, and ultimately prevented me from covering it in the detail I prepared. Their behavior displayed a lack of decency toward my efforts in preparing an effective presentation. The next session was with 2 people. They asked the “Transducer” question (as described). These interviewers were behaving unprofessional during my presentation (interruptions). Their unprofessional behavior escalated throughout this entire session. When I started to “brainstorm” snippets of a solution on the whiteboard, the interviewer constantly criticized everything I was trying to write. The person wouldn’t let up, even for a short time to let me capture my thoughts on the whiteboard. I realized they were making a poor attempt at being the “bar raiser”. But regardless of their role, their actions were deceptive and disrespectful. I can’t conclude they were simply incompetent because their behavior was abhorrent. Lunch: General discussion about working there. I asked questions about how teams interact, and about their “Going to Space” video, which claimed they would fly passengers by the end of 2019 (missed). I asked how that goal was set to understand how schedules are developed. The person became evasive and said he had no visibility into such decisions. This suggests schedules are determined “top-down-by-fiat”. Such methods devastate working conditions, and it’s frightening to consider their impact on product safety. I noticed this person was wearing a Blue Origin t-shirt containing a “safety” related slogan. Technical interviews after lunch were also ineffective. They needed to rush the technical content because they revisited material that would have been covered by my presentation, but was not due to their constant interruptions. The last session was with the hiring manager who was reasonable. She discussed organization structure, and made it a point to clarify the two interviewers from my first session were NOT in her organization. The “bar raiser” term was not used, but she implied I was being “considered by another organization”, which really means “bar raiser”. I realized she had NO control over their presence and poor behavior. I asked a question related to the level of the position I was being considered for. She said Blue Origin lists multiple open positions for the same title that only vary by level. I asked her to clarify how a candidate is evaluated to determine which level they are qualified for because I noticed the position descriptions are vague in describing different levels. She could not provide an effective answer but then admitted she had ONLY ONE hire requisition open, although there are multiple positions listed for that requisition at different levels. This demonstrates incompetent staffing level management and talent acquisition because Blue Origin is incapable of writing a position description that accurately conveys real staffing needs. In summary the interview was “bumpy”, but I learned a lot about Blue Origin. The goal of my “Thoughts on Space Flight” writing exercise was to convey the FACT of how humility and teamwork gave birth to human achievement in space. I wrote what I believed hoping I would encounter decent, humble professionals who understand the responsibility of carrying human life into space. But instead I learned speaking such humble truth to “bat-poop-crazy” egotistical maniacs will trigger delusional “superstar complex” behavior. People suffering from such self delusion behave in ways which attempt to cloak their tremendous insecurity, this is why they become so totally unhinged when interacting with a person who is confident in displaying humility. Such behavior is especially abhorrent when directed at an interview candidate because their power differential makes them incapable of behaving in any other way. Yet these people are building spacecraft that will carry human life. I cannot believe such people can even grasp what that means, but I guess wearing t-shirts containing safety related slogans is an important component of their delusion. Experiencing such abhorrent behavior was difficult until I realized how much I was learning about Blue Origin. I understand my encounter was limited to only several people, but an organization that allows such abhorrent behavior is impugned to a much greater degree for enabling it.