NVIDIA Germany: Worst interview experience of my career
NVIDIA Germany: Worst interview experience of my career
I applied for a Senior Solutions Architect role at NVIDIA Germany. My resume was shortlisted, and the recruiter asked me to provide interview availability. I provided four different time slots across a week to make scheduling easier.
I was assigned an interviewer based in Tel Aviv District, Israel
Even though the role was for EU: Germany, France, Poland.
I prepared thoroughly for the interview, particularly around GPU clusters, Kubernetes, HPC, NVIDIA technologies, and related infrastructure.
First interview
On the day of the interview, I joined the Microsoft Teams call.
The interviewer told me that his camera wasn't working and that he needed some time to fix it.
I didn't think much of it initially. Technical problems happen.
But the camera remained off for around 15 minutes, and there was almost no communication during that time. I disconnected and reconnected to Teams multiple times because I thought the problem might be on my side.
It wasn't.
Throughout the interview, the camera remained off. His audio was also breaking up or was sometimes so quiet that I had difficulty understanding the questions.
I tried to stay positive and focused because I understand that technical problems can happen.
However, what surprised me was that there was essentially no technical assessment.
There were no meaningful questions about GPU infrastructure, Kubernetes, HPC, or the technologies relevant to the position. The main focus was on why I was interested in the role.
I left the interview disappointed, but I didn't take it personally.
I even sent the interviewer a LinkedIn connection request because I was interested in learning more about his background. I made it clear that there was absolutely no obligation to accept.
Around two weeks later, I received a rejection.
I didn't have a problem with the rejection. That's part of interviewing, and I continued applying.
A few weeks later...
My CV was shortlisted for another NVIDIA role.
Again, I provided four possible time slots.
And again, I was assigned to the same interviewer.
I decided to put the previous experience aside and approach the interview with a completely positive mindset.
Then the interview started.
And, unbelievably, the exact same camera problem happened again.
The interviewer spent around 10 minutes trying to get the camera working. There was no communication during this period.
I was sitting in front of the screen, looking at his name in Teams, waiting patiently and wondering whether the meeting was actually going to happen.
Eventually, after around 15 minutes, the interview started.
He explained what his team does and asked me to introduce myself.
After my introduction, he told me that he didn't think I was a fit for the role.
The interview ended after roughly 25 minutes, even though a one-hour slot had been booked.
And again, there was essentially no technical assessment.
No questions about:
- GPU infrastructure
- Kubernetes
- HPC
- GPU clusters
- NVIDIA technologies
- My open-source HPC projects
- My relevant technical experience
Nothing that gave me an opportunity to demonstrate whether I was technically suitable for the role.
What bothers me
I'm completely comfortable with rejection.
A company can decide that I'm not the right candidate. That's their decision, and I respect it.
What I find difficult to understand is the interview process itself.
If a company schedules a one-hour technical interview, I expect at least some meaningful technical discussion.
If there is a technical problem with the interviewer's setup, I also expect some communication with the candidate.
And if the interviewer decides within a few minutes that the candidate isn't suitable, I would expect some explanation or at least enough discussion to make the assessment meaningful.
This is especially surprising when interviewing with a company like NVIDIA, where the candidate is also evaluating the company and its engineering culture.
I'm not posting this because I was rejected.
I've been rejected by companies before and will undoubtedly be rejected again. That's normal.
I'm posting this because candidate experience matters.
For an external candidate, the interview is one of the very few opportunities to experience a company's culture directly.
If the experience involves waiting 10–15 minutes without communication, repeated technical problems, poor audio, an abruptly shortened interview, and no meaningful technical assessment, it doesn't leave a good impression.
Maybe I was genuinely not a fit for either role. That's completely possible.
But I would have appreciated an interview that actually gave both sides an opportunity to determine that.
Has anyone else experienced something similar when interviewing with NVIDIA or another large technology company?
I'd be particularly interested in hearing from people who have gone through NVIDIA's interview process in Germany.