Recruiment Policy

Technical Assessments

I prefer evaluation methods that directly reflect the responsibilities of the position. These may include: paid work trials, discussing relevant projects, reviewing research outcomes, and exploring real-world reinforcement learning and robotics problems.

I do not complete unpaid take-home assignments, coding bounties, or trial projects. I also do not participate in unpaid trial periods or work samples intended to establish my qualifications before compensation is offered.

I do not participate in traditional coding interviews or assessments focused on LeetCode-style problems, HackerRank challenges, data structures, or general-purpose algorithms. My graduate education included training in these areas, but my primary specialization and the majority of my research effort have focused on reinforcement learning. Traditional coding assessments are not designed to measure the full range of skills required for reinforcement learning research and engineering. Preparing for these assessments also takes time away from my specialized work. Conversations with colleagues across robotics companies have also reinforced my view that performance on generalized coding assessments does not predict success in a specialized role.

If a position primarily requires general-purpose software engineering skills and standardized coding assessments are essential to the hiring process, I completely understand. In that case, we may simply be looking for different things in a candidate.

Interviews and Professional Verification

I require compensation for all interview time, including initial screening calls.

I am happy to provide appropriate documentation to help verify my background, including letters of work verification and academic transcripts. I can also present my portfolio and demonstrate my work in a presentation format without disclosing proprietary code or sensitive implementation details. Time spent preparing or obtaining additional materials will be billed at my standard rate.

You can read my blog summarizing my PhD research, which provides additional context for my technical background and work. My research involved building a custom robotics reinforcement learning environment from the ground up. At the time, developing and testing this kind of environment without AI code-generation assistance required substantial independent engineering and research effort.

Technical Discussions and Intellectual Property

I am happy to discuss my research, technical approach, engineering experience, and the results I have achieved. However, I do not disclose proprietary implementation details or the specific problem-solving methods that constitute my professional know-how during unpaid conversations.

If you would like to explore those details more deeply, I welcome a formal offer and a discussion about the appropriate next steps. I believe there are reasonable ways to evaluate technical expertise while respecting intellectual property and the time invested in developing it.