I was referred and excited to interview at OpenAI. The process began with a 30-minute recruiter screen. Less than an hour before the call, I was notified that the original recruiter was under the weather and I’d be speaking with another team member instead. The conversation was cordial, but I sensed I wasn’t able to give the exact signal they were looking for—and that’s OK. What stood out more was the Q&A portion. I asked two questions mentioned in a previous review: 1. What separates a good recruiter from a great recruiter? 2. What are your success metrics? The response to the first leaned heavily on personal opinion and didn’t reflect a clear or shared framework for recruiter excellence. For the second, the answer was candid: they don’t currently have success metrics in place and are not at that level of organizational maturity yet. I left with mixed feelings. It’s a prestigious company doing important work, but this reminded me that, just like in sports, not every player thrives in every system. Fit matters.