I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Celestial AI (San Jose, CA)
Interview
The interview process was straightforward and nothing new. The process didn't work out despite doing well. I wonder if the HM was more interested in subjective traits than actual talent
It’s becoming common for some Silicon Valley startups to treat interviews as free consulting, and Celestial AI is no exception.
From the start, they clearly knew from my resume that I wasn’t the exact hire they wanted, yet the conversation centered on extracting details about how large organizations operate — tools engineers use, workflows, cross-functional collaboration and methods.
It felt less like an evaluation and more like mining for playbooks they haven’t built themselves.
Using candidate time this way is unprofessional and transparent.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
what specific dashboards or reporting structures did you use to track issue closure/which processes your previous company was following for this and that