Intro/background, take home coding assignment & live review, live co-coding interview, cultural interview. Background - I had always respected and revered the scientific python stack that Travis and Peter had brought into the world as OSS. In 2014 I was living in Austin, TX building a data science startup that relied heavily on those tools, including conda and later juyter, a project/tool I still use and love. I even went to Anacondacon once and got to hear a talk by Travis. So this was a company I was very familiar with and had respected for a long time, and was pretty excited about the prospect of working there. I had learned that I had passed the previous technical assessments/interviews from the tech director I initially interviewed with, which was actually a very exciting/engaging convo - we got along really well both personally as well as technical conversation and I was happy to learn that I'd be working under him, hypothetially. He recommended me for the take home code challenge - building a tic tac toe game or something, which I kind of went above and beyond on spending a little more than the specified time (which I disclosed). Then the live co-coding interview was with two smart young engineers who went through the motions, including asking "how would you solve this" kind of stuff which I nailed. They were smart and friendly and the kind of folks I would enjoy working with. Heard I was being recommended for the last interview (the "cultural" interview) and the manager from the into interview personally sent me an email in which he relayed that hiring considered me to be a very strong candidate and wished me good luck with the last stage. Cultural interview started with two ladies sitting silently on the call, both remote home offices. When I joined the call, nobody was there yet and like five minutes went by before they both appeared. They were kind of not looking at the screen and seemed distracted or something, which I don't judge. So I'm looking at the video call and smiling, kind of waiting for them to lead off, but they just don't say anything, at all, for like, a minute at least. I figured they were getting organized or something? One person is looking down at some papers and the other is like sitting in a chair at desk kind of far away from the camera and like, not making eye contact, kind of looking past her machine or something. My first impression was like, dang, did something sad happen to both these people today? Anyway, I'm used to the interviewer like, leading off w personal introductions or whatever, maybe saying like "how are you today," I respond you know like well thanks, appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today, then the other person talks again maybe like briefing me on what to expect over the course of the interview, you know, friendly/professional/casual conversational proceedings that seem pretty natural, to me, at least (and seemingly to everyone who's ever interviewed me). I was a little worried that maybe they couldn't see me or something, so I broke the silence by piping up "Hi, how are you today? I'm , thanks for meeting with me today, looking forward to talking with you etc etc." One lady responded to me, told me this is the cultural interview, they take it very seriously, and my I'll be evaluated according to my responses to the questions they ask as to whether I'm a fit for the company culturally, do I have any questions before we begin? I asked if they'd tell me a little about themselves, have they been with the company for long, looks like you're both remote, cool beans. Seemed like only the one lady ever talked except the other telling me her name and location and that she has 3 months w/ the company. Yes, remote out of San Fran, 6 months here, ah cool I said, heard it's beautiful place to live, btw I live in Denver not that anyone asked but figured I'd reciprocate since nobody is saying anything otherwise. Then, just straight silence again. it seemed like each interviewer on the call was waiting for the other to lead or something? I think maybe I tried to make a little more small talk but I was starting to wonder if I had missed something in the email describing this particular interview process. It was kind of surreal. I unmuted and said something to the effect of "thanks for your intros, um, yeah, I'm ready to get started unless there's anything else you'd like me to share with you." I felt awkward saying that but it was way more awkward with them not saying anything and these super strange streches of silence. The one lady did mention they'd be taking notes, which I totally get might introduce some tiny conversational latency. She asks some standard/generic question like - what's a mistake you learned from, etc. I responded in as conversational and like, engaged/happy-to-be-there vibe. I fire off a prepared personal anecdote, one I've used across other interviews, about learning the importance of transparent communication when working in a team env or whatever. They're looking down when I get to "so yeah, that's a mistake I made..." They don't look up or say anything at all, so I assume they're busy... with their notes or something? I can't tell what they're doing really since neither is really looking at the camera, so I give them time to finish whatever it is they're doing out of respect. Then like, a minute goes by, silence. Now they seem like they're just sitting there. Felt the need to say things like "Does that answers your question..." "Would you like me to elaborate on my answer in any way?" "Did I understand your question correctly?" even at one point "do you have anything else you'd like to ask me?" cause they just weren't saying...anything at all. Like, I'm done answering now...I think? now you say something to me, perhaps a clarifying detail or even like, the next question? Farthest thing from a human conversation & weirdest interview I've ever had in my life. Left the call feeling a little confused but confident in my responses even if their refusal to respond verbally made me a little nervous, sometimes filling the air after indicating I was done responding with awkward elaborations since there was no feedback in any way shape or form. Last 10 mins reserved for my questions for them about company culture was pretty brutal, minimal responses back which at that point was about as much as I could expect... I actually did have some culture questions I cared to ask, eg the experience of hybrid remote/office team dynamics etc, which I care about as a r&d engineer w/ mostly office experience where your team sits next to you. The one lady responded in like, 30 words, that she doesn't mind it, they have Slack, so she can talk to anyone in there. Ah, this person is obviously not an engineer of course, probably the nuance of the question is lost on her if she hasn't worked on in a faced paced shop. I try to explain my experience and conerns around my question in an attempt to justify that, like, it's actually a relevant question for someone like me and not like, some obvious thing which it feels like I'm getting negatively judged about for asking. I find myself trying to explain that it's just, in my experience as an engineer working out of a shed in a small team, there's a synergy there that I'm just curious if..." Deadface silence, which is to be expected at this point. There were 5 minutes left and I had two more questions (one about mentorship/menteeship opportunities which is important to me) which I basically just resigned myself to ask for the sake of showing that, of course, I'm vested in what's a right fit for me as well as me for the company, but there's two minutes left in this meeting. At this point I try to ask some follow up questions quickly to her other answers in which she had more to say, and I wound up speaking at the same time as she did a few times in a row (which in my experience is just a part of life in virtual meetings from time to time), I wanted to respect their time, so when the hour mark hit I let them know that I appreciated their time and wish I had had more time lean into their understanding of anaconda culture. They seemed somewhat unaware that time was up and that I was the one trying to wrap up the interview. Did they expect/want me to go over time? When I stood up I felt like I had just been in the twilight zone or something. Relayed the experience to some family and friends, too crazy not to share and in a way a little funny. Anyway, that was one of the strangest human engagements I've had in a professional (or generally social) setting, hands down. Obviously had no idea afterwards if I nailed it in their eyes but I had complete confidence that I couldn't have bombed it or anything - I certainly didn't say anything offensive and my responses were relevant and earnest. Learning the hard way about chasing rabbitholes, meeting deadlines, etc. I'm not a socially awkward type or anything - not that there's anything wrong with that - but getting along with folks has always come naturally for me both in personal and work life. Anyway, got an email from HR the next day saying that while my technical performance had been well regarded, I had not passed the cultural interview, stating "the panelists felt that there was a concerning of lack of questions from you in the beginning" and "a slew of questions asked at the end of the interview with no active listening to the panelists responses before hopping to the next question." You could say I was flabbergasted! I'll never forget my experience interviewing at anaconda. Tech interviews can be long and drawn out with multiple rounds of interviews spaced by coding assignments and other kinds of preparatory work on the applicant side. It's a pretty big loss in terms of time investment when you don't move forward, and getting to a final round interview signifies that a relationship between company and applicant has been established, and even when I haven't been selected at the end, I still respect the opportunity and the company and however they make decisions. I've had 4 or 5 final round rejections over the years, and I learned from each of those and moved on. This Anaconda interview though was nothing like that. I still am not sure exactly what happened or where I went wrong, except that I consider myself fortunate to have been deemed culturally unfit to work at Anaconda, and frankly after that final round my only positive takeaway is that I can joke about self-identifying with the "tech counter-culture movement" which I made up completely but can be a fun conversation plug that usually gets a smile.