I had a 30 minute phone-only interview with a recruiter, and then a second 45 minute video-interview with two employees. The two interviewers talked about a change in strategic direction for the company, but couldn't speak to any specifics (even though I signed an NDA prior to the interview). That tells me that they really don't know and BlueOwl likely does not have a clear direction right now. An employee review from 3 months ago says "direction was murky when I left", so it seems not much has changed in 3 months. My thinking is, at what point is big brother State Farm going to come knocking and ask for profits and ROI? They are not going to keep writing blank checks for their above-market payroll costs forever. So this makes me think that the company has quite a bit of risk and uncertainty. The interviewers focused a lot on specific Python skills that I "had to know". I had to know X, Y, and Z about Python even though I have 20 years of experience with Java and other programming languages. At the end of the day, there is nothing amazing that Python is doing compared to other programming languages--most of it is syntactical sugar that can easily be picked up by an experienced Software Engineer. It's not rocket science, folks! I've coded in Rust, Java, JavaScript, Typescript, and more... all of that was ignored. The fact that I'm exceptionally skilled at SQL, Snowflake query tuning, dbt models and tests, data quality, data governance, AWS, Jenkins CI/CD, and Terraform (bringing a strong overall package) was also largely ignored--at least that's how I perceived it. I was up from and honest with the recruiter in my first interview that my background is more focused on Java and not Python. But evidently that fact was not passed on. A very high portion of the interview was focused on Python versus other technologies that were listed in the job description. It felt like the interviewers didn't really know much at all about EQ (emotional intelligence) or how to interview for a mix of IQ and EQ. EQ is just as important (or more) than knowing A, B, and C about a specific programming language. Programming languages can be EASILY picked up by a skilled Software Engineer. At a certain point, EQ becomes a better determination if a Software Engineer will be a great contributor as long as a certain level of IQ is met or exceeded. I've never had a problem with IQ in my career, and I'm frequently praised for my high level of EQ (ability to be customer facing, ability to empathize, teamwork/collaboration, respect for others, ability to read the room, ask important "why" questions, being coachable, and so on). In short, high IQ + high EQ = the biggest determination that a Software Engineer will excel in any role but the interviewers seemed oblivious to this. The Engineer that they will likely hire (high IQ, low EQ, highly skilled in Python) will do great at building something exactly to requirements specifications, but is not likely to ask "why are we building it this way?" or "how can I make it better?". Core values were completely lacking from the interview process (zero mention of any). And, no mention of the company's vision or mission. When I asked "how would you describe the company's culture?", it was "we have only smart Senior level people here. No Junior engineers or interns that we have to deal with." It was also mentioned that you can work independently with very little micro-managing. So, that's the best thing about the culture? And, if you are looking for diversity, forget about it. It was never mentioned that it was valued in any way. Also, one of the interviewers rubbed me the wrong way. There was a sense of arrogance and overconfidence about him, and he interrupted me often which was a little rude. Or maybe "aggressive" is a good way to describe it. Pretty much the opposite of "be considerate of others" type of core value. I would not go so far as to say it was "toxic", but it just stuck out to me because that type of person is someone that I probably would not want to work with. The other interviewer was less aggressive but seemed to be a Python snob... knows everything there is to know about Python but not much else.