The recruiter set up the first interview with the Director of AI.
They could not find a 45-minute slot for the interview in his schedule, so they scheduled it for 30 minutes. The director came 5 minutes late. Then he asked for my past experience, which I kept brief. He asked me some advanced-level questions regarding the vision language model. After the discussion, I was given time to ask him a question. I asked if this was a backfill position or a new position, and he said it was a backfill. I asked how long this position has been open. He lied and said three months. I know he lied because I saw the ad for the role reposted/shared from his LinkedIn account 8 months ago. I understand that he wanted to save face. However, he did not answer the next question confidently, which was: What are the most imminent tasks that you expect a person hired for this backfill to accomplish first? He gave a very generic answer, repeating the job description of the role. He then told me that the recruiter will be back with more information on the next round in 24 hours. I waited over a month before giving up to hear back from them. I just assumed they are happy to wait another year to backfill this position. :)