Originally applied for the Perception engineering role but instead the recruiter/leader insistent I work on the infrastructure side instead. I was more enthusiastic about being able to work on the robotic platform as I have a strong passion for robotics and working in machine vision. I also took a keen interest as I followed the project from Atrius->Cassie-> Digit. Got a take home problem set which I solved and emailed back to the recruiter. Got scheduled for an interview with the lead dev. We talked about my background,, some side projects I've worked on which included a robotic spot mini I'm working on and previous work in traditional computer vision in my last role. The interview inquired about my recent course and project based masters degree I finished while working full time during Covid. The interviewer then mentioned that the perception roles were only reserved for those who "actually did research" since they're cutting edge. He then he mentioned the company is really good at moving people to their interests. I wasn't sure what to make of this so I pressed on and asked about the infrastructure role. Not sure if it was a way to let me down easy and I initially let it slide since interviews can be a bit awkward and he seemed to be doing interviews all day. (I've been there) The interviewer then tried to play up the infrastructure role and mentioned they had another developer in need of mentorship who's been working on the current system and who's code/way of doing things wasn't to his quality even though that developer is always "right". I wasn't sure what to make that. After some discussion of how I solved the problem, I asked further about the comment about mentorship and why he thought that was needed and what was going on there as wasn't that the code that got Series B funding? The interview went into a bit of spiel about how that dev is "always right" and "earlier it was a tad overbearing" and I kind of got the vibe there's some unsavoury team dynamic there which pointed to a personal issue. Overall as much as I like robotics, I really thought it was extremely unprofessional for him to just put down a team member like that, especially in a startup that just got a series B and this was the person that was part of the success Ontop of the comment about my degree being slightly "lesser than", and more or less telling a stranger about someone on his team in a negative light, I decided i wasn't a great fit. As soon as I got an email from the recruiter about the final round (4 hour 3 interviews back to back) I pulled my application. To be frank I've been really disappointed by the experience. For a place that's cutting edge, I didn't see the need to put down a fellow comrade. As for mentorship to the "always right" dev - Here's a piece of advice, find someplace else, you can do better. That's all the mentorship you need from me kid.