00:00Landing a job at Anthropic is so fiercely competitive that applicants are spending, get this, $4,600 on average on
00:08private interview coaching.
00:09Candidates say the startup's intense culture screen feels less like an interview and more like therapy.
00:15While the company faces some incredible pressure to survive economically while keeping its values, people are really clamoring to be
00:22part of that story.
00:23Bloomberg Joe Constance, I'm pleased to say, is with us.
00:25You do this fascinating deep dive, what it's like to go through interview rounds at Anthropic.
00:30What is it like?
00:31Well, I mean, for the first thing, it's competitive.
00:36There are so many applicants now.
00:38There are so many people who are, you know, just would be thrilled to join.
00:42Even the most seasoned engineers, the most high-level executives, recruiters tell me, are willing to take the call from
00:50the recruiter.
00:51And the interview process, while a lot of it is pretty standard, the culture interview, from what I hear from
00:58candidates and recruiters, is a little unusual.
01:00Right.
01:01And more of, you know, a lot of companies, the culture fit interview is kind of a vibe check just
01:07to make sure, you know, you're not odd.
01:12But then this interview is a little bit more of a hard feature.
01:15They want you to be odd in many ways.
01:17They want you to think differently or push back against thoughts that are different.
01:20But they have a very defined sense of their own culture.
01:23And so they are looking for particular people to fit that environment.
01:28Hey, Joe, a lot of people I know that work at Anthropic are pretty odd.
01:31And if you're watching the show today, you know where to find me.
01:34So if you're a candidate, because I imagine actually a lot of the Bloomberg Tech audience are aspirational.
01:39They want to go and work at Anthropic.
01:41What does $4,600 actually get you?
01:43Like, what are you paying for?
01:44And is it working?
01:47Sure.
01:47You know, part of this story was interesting to discover a little bit more about this cottage industry of interview
01:55prep companies,
01:57these career coaches that are really selling, you know, their services to help people prepare for these,
02:03what feels like, you know, oftentimes very high stakes sorts of, you know, rounds and rounds of these interviews and
02:12skills assessments.
02:13And so in some cases, it's just some resources to prep candidates on, you know, what types of questions they
02:21can expect for other coaches they're offering mock interviews.
02:27And what type can you expect?
02:28Because it is different.
02:29You are going to be sort of pushed more than you might be elsewhere because they're really so based on
02:35the mission, right, briefly.
02:36Right.
02:37So, I mean, that's the thing that I've heard from candidates, that sometimes they're not quite expecting as much introspection,
02:45you know,
02:45these types of questions that are really pushing folks to reflect on, you know, past experiences, decisions they've made,
02:53have they felt about those decisions, which is a bit unusual for people who are used to just talking about,
02:59you know,
02:59this project I did at work and how it went and that kind of thing.
03:02My greatest failing being how successful orientated I am.
03:06Yes, exactly.
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