The interview process was quite different from what I typically encounter. As a scientist, my interviews involve giving research talks, discussing prior work, and exploring how cutting-edge algorithms can be applied to future R&D efforts. Apogee’s process, however, was more aligned with a traditional tech interview—featuring a system design question and a blackboard-style algorithm problem. I didn’t perform particularly well, which isn’t surprising as I hadn’t prepared for that format. Additionally, the first interviewer seemed to be reading my résumé for the first time and was surprised to learn that I wasn’t a software engineer. Part of the issue is that I didn't apply to one of their open positions but was contacted by a recruiter. Therefore, I never saw a formal open rec and assumed they were looking for a scientist. If you're a scientist interviewing at Apogee, it's worth brushing up on LeetCode-style problems and system design questions, as they may come up during the interview.