Finest team and most noble mission in the world today! - Member of Recruiting Staff OpenAI Employee Review

5.0
Apr 30, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I have built some amazing teams at previous organizations, but OpenAI takes things to a new level with regard to talent bar! The passion that everyone (researchers, engineers, and non-technical team members) exhibits every day to reach our goal of delivering safe Artificial General Intelligence is inspiring. The new office is breathtaking! Compensation is MUCH higher than Glassdoor's limited/fake data. Glad I didn't look there before applying ;-) Collaboration is paramount and everyone at the company is a Slack message or lunch table away. Work/life balance is something that I thought might be lacking with such highly productive, driven teammates, but to a person, weekends and evenings are respected and it feels like everyone knows they do their best work when properly rested and recharged. Knowing you are contributing to such an important mission is really the best "Pro".

Cons

This is the classic "Con" that is actually a "Pro", but with the talent bar so high, it makes recruiting more challenging. I have had to tell candidates "no" when they receive "yes" from every other interview process. This can sometime be uncomfortable when someone interviews 6 places, receives 5 offers and the place they really want to work says "not quite".

Explore other reviews about OpenAI

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

high talent density, good research culture, good TC. compute generally isn't an issue. people are very serious and in it to win it. sama is very competent

Cons

has become googleified as time goes on, more top-down. employees are also somewhat entitled/spoiled when dealing with leadership (some may not see this as a downside though)

1.0
May 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good pay and benefits, some smart people

Cons

The leadership is extremely reactive. Instead of having a plan and sticking to it, they change the course where the competition blows. It's basically like they dont trust their own plan and trust competition instead. No culture, it's just a rat race. Work life balance as you should expect in a cult like environment is non existent. You are indefinitely on call to fix the issues other internal teams break. hire the brightest to baby sit AI and do support work.

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