How hard is it to get a job at Nvidia?

Over the past three weeks, Nvidia has been recruiting for new positions in Vietnam, including managers, engineers, and senior engineers, with requirements for expertise, qualifications, and work experience. Similar to its headquarters and branches around the world, this is the first step in a common process for the world's most valuable semiconductor company.

Nvidia was co-founded by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem in 1993. They had 42 employees in 1996, and now have around 30,000. According to Statista, Nvidia's employees are in the US, accounting for more than 50%, mainly in research and development (R&D), while Asia focuses on engineering and operating roles, with the largest share in India (15%). The rest are in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with a total of more than 19%.

A series of obstacles to overcome

After submitting an application, if contacted by Nvidia for an interview, candidates will begin what 4DayWeek calls a “journey of limitless possibilities.” Nvidia’s hiring timeline is relatively short, with most candidates taking 3-8 weeks from application to decision.

Nvidia first reviews the job openings, so candidates need to make a good first impression by making sure their resume is a perfect fit for the job. The resume should highlight contact information, education, strengths, and experience.

After receiving the notification, the candidate moves on to the screening interview stage. The employer will ask about skills, work history, relevant projects and most importantly, passion for the upcoming role. This is considered the candidate's opportunity to make a first impression and demonstrate their experience, skills and how they can contribute to the team.

The second phase is an online technical test, usually about an hour long, that focuses on remote problem solving. The candidate is given one or two coding problems, involving algorithms and data structures. The interviewer will observe the process and steps in finding a solution. Since it is online, the candidate must share a remote computer screen to record the steps.

Those who pass this round will move on to the on-site technical interview round. There are 5-6 small tests, each lasting 45 minutes. Nvidia experts will start with 10 minutes of general questions and 30 minutes of technical questions and programming challenges. In particular, candidates need to be proficient in popular programming languages ​​​​C++, Python and Verilog, as well as computer architecture, data structures, algorithms, embedded systems, Linux, MATLAB - core skills that help Nvidia maintain its leadership in GPUs, AI, robotics and high-performance computing (HPC) in the market, according to Aura Workforce Analytics.

In the final stage of the interview, the Nvidia recruiting team will focus on ensuring the candidate fits the company’s values ​​and the needs of the job. Here, the HR department will ask about the candidate’s behavior, how they handle work, and how they handle different situations in the workplace.

"Simple concepts are often followed by difficult technical questions. Textbooks and YouTube are just theoretical advice that is difficult to apply," said ursonor99. wrote on Reddit earlier this year after being recruited by Nvidia. “My suggestion is, instead of trying to solve every technical question in a row, treat it like a competitive exam and work through it in batches. The time limit will not be enough for you to solve every problem.”

According to statistics from career platform Glassdoor late last year, 60% of interviewees rated their experience at Nvidia as “positive,” 18% as “negative,” and 23% as “neutral.” Applicants rated the difficulty level at 3.2 out of 5 — slightly higher than similar Big Tech companies.

Next challenge

Despite the difficult hiring process, full-time employees will enjoy a host of company benefits. But according to Bloomberg, they will face a "boilerplate" environment, a frenetic work culture that CEO Jensen Huang has created since its founding.

According to one former employee, the engineer’s workweek was typically seven days, with some days ending as late as 1 or 2 a.m. He noticed that other colleagues worked even later. Another female employee said she had no time to spend money and had to attend seven to 10 meetings a day, many of which involved frequent arguments and yelling.

Unlike many other tech companies, Nvidia employees don’t have a relaxing office space or work half-heartedly while waiting for stock awards. However, sources told Business Insider that Nvidia has a no-layoff culture. When an individual underperforms, the company moves them to a new team, rather than offering them additional training or termination.

Jensen Huang once explained that his leadership style was shaped by his many encounters with “adversity” over his 30-plus years in management. He always told his employees that he was pushing them to do the most important thing, willing to “torture them to become great.”

"That's the way it should be. If you want to achieve something extraordinary, you can't do what's easy," he told 60 Minutes in mid-year.