Despite all of the negative interview reviews, I truly thought that I would have a positive experience while interviewing. Turns out I was wrong! Overall, the process was daunting. I had 3 different recruiters in contact with me at all times, constantly reaching out if they didn’t receive responses from me within 30 minutes but then would go days getting back to me in return. Process consisted of: Phone interview Interview with hiring manager Interview with portion of the team Interview with another portion of the team Interview with CEO The only good part of the interview process was that the teams were all incredibly nice. They took interviewing very seriously (maybe a little too seriously seeing as they didn’t deviate from their canned questions they had written down. Made it pretty robotic). I also liked that they talked in a matter of “when you come on board” rather than “if you come on board”. The hiring manager and team seemed genuinely interested and eager for me to join the team. The negative aspects of the interview were as follows: - the recruiters at lucid are horrific. Nice people but give terrible interviews, go days before responding while expecting immediate communication from your end, and have to be prodded multiple times before ultimately telling you they hired someone else. - they never tell you the salary range. You go though the whole process without even know if it’s going to be in the range of where you feel comfortable compensation wise. - they ask for college transcripts early on in the process. Why wouldn’t they wait until the end to ask for those? Also, using college transcripts in an interview process is a really great way to make yourselves look like an immature company. Shows that you really only have recent college grads working for you instead of people with actual experience. - Good for the CEO wanting to interview everyone. However if he’s going to interview you, be prepared for him to be late, be incredibly impersonal, and to be interrupted by his assistant multiple times. Maybe stop interviewing if you have no time to do it. Don’t interrupt interviews. It’s only 30 minutes. 20 minutes if you’re late. - you have to put in a lot of extra time in between interviews: personality tests, presentation prep, writing samples, etc. Lucid, your office was not that cool and your jobs aren’t that exciting. Treat candidates more like humans than like cattle. We’re real humans, taking real time out of our jobs; we deserve to be treated with the same excitement and eagerness that you expect from your candidates. The reviews for Lucids interview process are some of the worst I’ve seen. They’re well deserved. Lucid, you should use these as a wake up call.

A former colleague referred me to the recruiters; they reached out quickly. The interview process was as follows: 1. First recruiter emailed and set a phone screen interview. 2. Second recruiter emailed and set a phone interview with the hiring manager. 3. Phone interview with the hiring manager. By this point it was clear the pay scale was below my expectation and experience, and my experience was above the initial posting. 4. Third recruiter emailed requesting I complete a series of quizzes effectively proving out my capabilities and experience. There was also a request for a personality quiz. This is where things got bizarre. They requested my college GPA and transcript. I almost didn't complete the request, because I don't believe in a culture that values the performance of a 20-year-old over that of a thirty-something with more than a decade of proven excellence in work history and experience. They stated I wouldn't be able to move forward without it. 5. Had a 2+ hour onsite interview with numerous groups of individuals from the broader team, as well as the CEO. I enjoyed meeting with the team. They were clearly bright and driven. I especially liked the hiring manager. Meeting the head of the company was great. He spent more time than originally planned for, and thoughtfully considered my questions. When I pushed him on the practice of reviewing an academic record — which is not standard practice in most tech positions (we aren't doctors proving out schooling credentials) — he stated it stemmed from needing to ensure hiring the very best people. I respect their choice to include what they believe is a key indicator of success, but I believe it's a faulty one. I don't know if it played a part in my not receiving an offer, but in the interview I felt compelled to provide personal details "explaining" certain gaps or inconsistencies. I'd have much preferred to spend that time talking about my relevant work experience as opposed to sharing such personal information in a professional setting with people I'd never met. 6. A week after the interview I received an email from a recruiter stating they would move forward with other candidates. The reasoning provided, and the fact that the position remains open on their site more than one month later, leads me to believe the pay scale they're requesting and the must-haves for the position are unrealistic. It would appear that Lucid hopes to hire more experience than they can reasonably pay, but maybe that was just their way of trying to kindly let me down. I cite this interview as negative, not because of the general process or the individuals, but because I find the practice of evaluating a candidate's credentials academically to be antiquated and off-putting, particularly in an era when the leading tech companies in the world now state they no longer consider a college degree mandatory. One reviewer said they appreciated the company valued academic performance, but I'm guessing that reviewer is just a few years removed from college. What classes I took, how I did in them, and what my final GPA was could be indicators into the type of employee I would be...if I were only 25 years old with only a few years of work experience under my belt. I'd think my relevant certifications and experience from a decade+ career would be far more valuable, and yet the recruiter made it clear that the executive team would be evaluating my college experience in conjunction with the rest of my interviews and credentials. It's possible Lucid could be a great company to work for, but after chatting with a recruiter friend about the practice, I'm guessing they're missing out on a lot of great talent by prioritizing this particular measurement.