Candidates interviewing for certain teams at OpenAI will now go through a new step in the process, knowing as the “mission interview.”
The company is currently introducing it as a new pilot program, starting with the marketing and human resources teams, OpenAI told Fortune on Monday. The goal is to give job candidates a dedicated space to talk about how they will contribute to OpenAI’s mission, which is “to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity.”
Specifically, OpenAI wants to gauge how candidates think, including their judgment and ability to weigh trade-offs—traits that are increasingly critical as artificial intelligence companies work to control technology with great benefits as well as potential dangers. There is no “right” answer, an OpenAI representative said; skepticism and disagreement are welcome, as is intellectual diversity.
The person conducting the interview will be from a separate team from whatever role the candidate is applying for. OpenAI is also creating a training program that interested employees can complete to become certified to conduct the interviews, though the program is just starting to ramp up.
The evolution in OpenAI’s recruiting process is a marker of the company looking to standardize its evaluations as it matures and balloons in size. The company, which has roughly 8,000 employees worldwide, has 830 open roles as of this writing. By standardizing the process, OpenAI aims to have a consistent measure to evaluate new employees across teams.
Many tech companies, including Meta and Amazon, have their own version of a “mission interview,” which is somewhat akin to a test of cultural fit. For example, Amazon employees can be trained as “bar raisers”—interviewers from outside the hiring team, who assess whether a candidate meets Amazon’s company-wide “Leadership Principals.”
In Anthropic’s version, interviewers reportedly test if candidates are joining the AI lab for its mission or the money, according to Axios. Jobs at leading AI companies are incredibly lucrative, with many positions at OpenAI currently offering over $300K salaries, and much more with stock included.
One software engineer with six years of experience reportedly received an offer from OpenAI for $935,000 total compensation, with a $385,000 base, and $2.2 million of restricted stock shares (RSUs) vesting over four years, according to the anonymous professional network Blind. Anthropic allegedly offered another person $620,000 in total compensation, according to another Blind post.
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