中佑資訊有限公司

Upscale building

Interview for an AI Engineer position

First, you have to write an AI test. It contains no practical questions at all, just simple term definitions, yet they expect you to write a lot. After you finish, the manager in charge makes a grand entrance. They do not even greet you at first, and with an arrogant expression, they ask you to introduce yourself. Then they ask about the projects you have worked on. After you finish explaining, all they ask is whether your accuracy is high enough: “That’s all?” “We’re handling data in the quadrillions here—can you handle it?” “That’s not how AI is done.” They converse with you using all kinds of sarcastic remarks. During the process, they also tell you that interviewing here is just like interviewing for an AI engineer position at Facebook or Tesla. When deep learning comes up, they ask you to draw the entire architecture diagram by hand. If you cannot draw it, they say you do not understand anything at all.

The HR attitude was good and quite professional.

I interviewed for a “department that uses AI to make games,” which I assume was related to gambling games?

During the interview, I first had to write a handwritten test, covering explanations and definitions of AI- and DP-related terms. That part was fine. However, after I finished, I waited in the conference room for more than 20 minutes before the manager showed up. The manager, who looked to be around 50 and was not wearing glasses, neither introduced himself nor gave me a business card when he came in. Instead, he had an attitude that seemed intent on making things difficult and finding fault. I briefly described some of my work experience and mentioned that I had used PyTorch to build a model for predicting the number of bicycles, which is a very typical regression problem. However, immediately after I finished explaining, the manager said, “That’s too simple,” and “You talked a lot about the model, but what’s the accuracy? Did you copy this, or did you make it yourself?” Accuracy??? I was completely baffled. This isn’t a classification problem. I even calculated and showed you the loss function, MAE, and MSE, yet you insist on asking about accuracy?

If you’re really that amazing and capable and want to find fault with me, I have nothing to say. But insisting on asking a completely irrelevant question just makes you look ridiculous.

Overall, the interview wasn’t quite bad enough to be considered terrible, but this is not the kind of manager I would want to work with. I’m reluctantly giving it an average rating out of consideration for the HR representative.

The interview is always with the upper management of an independent agile development department. During the interview, everything will seem to fit your requirements, and you can happily join the company. HR says it is considered a startup company under the company's name.

The happier you are during the interview, the more deceptive it is after you join. They completely wash away and forget what position you interviewed for (absolutely the kind that crosses professions—you even start wondering whether you interviewed for an engineering position. The veterans say those positions are hard to fill, so they first use a more popular position to bring people in). In any case, wherever there is a shortage, that's where you will work. The probationary-period assessment is constantly held over your head. Unpaid overtime is standard (one day, if they are afraid HR will find out, they will be willing to let you submit an overtime form). The deputy supervisor stabs you in the back every day (the work given to you does not match what the supervisor requested, and they say you don't understand human language. Whoever cries first wins—they will definitely loudly berate you before you can tell the truth). Everyone knows that people in the workplace seek peace and want to avoid trouble. The veterans are all good people, but they can't really help you much... Anyway, go if your EQ is good enough. But compared with other departments with the same salary and benefits, the workload is three times greater! It's the ultimate training ground for little money and lots of work (the other departments are so peaceful that they are basically coasting toward retirement.

Upscale office building, convenient transportation

The interviewing manager had absolutely no understanding of the job responsibilities and had not reviewed the candidate’s résumé during the interview; the process was lengthy and incoherent