Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang rarely lays off employees and the people he hires seldom choose to leave the company, which is the second most valuable in the world. Though joining Nvidia’s 29,600-person workforce isn’t easy, Huang recently revealed how he approaches the hiring process — and it turns out that acing the interview isn’t the most important part.
“I think that the interview process is not an excellent way to judge whether somebody is a good fit,” Huang said on a Wednesday episode of the Tech Unheard podcast. “I mean, obviously, everybody could pretend to have a very constructive conversation.”
Candidates could easily hone their interviewing skills by watching YouTube videos, and they could look technically proficient by finding the technical questions beforehand, Huang stated. So instead of emphasizing the technical or behavioral interviews, Huang looks more closely at references.
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“My method is always I go back to reference checks and I ask them the questions that I was going to ask the candidate,” Huang said. “And the reason for that is you could always make for a great moment, but it’s hard for you to run away from your past.”
Huang pointed out that Nvidia’s attrition rate, or the rate at which employees leave the company, is “very low.” Nvidia’s 2024 sustainability report places its overall turnover rate at 2.7% and the industry average at 17.7%.
Nvidia’s growth over the past few years has made long-term employees wealthy, though they’re still putting in long hours. A Bloomberg report from earlier this year that cited 10 current and former Nvidia employees painted a grueling picture of the work atmosphere at the company.
According to the report, the work hours could stretch past 2 a.m. and meetings were punctuated with yelling and fighting. The constant competition created a “pressure cooker” environment.
Still, the company continues to create products that customers want. Huang indicated earlier this month that demand for Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell chip is strong and that “everybody wants to be first” to get the chip.
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