Last Friday, I went to the Walmart lab in Reston to "spy" on things. They've been quite active lately, attracting a lot of attention. Here's the intelligence I gathered.

Number of recruits, recruitment methods and levels

First of all, they really want to do something big. They plan to recruit 100+ engineers here (they currently have less than 100 people in total) and hope to complete this task by the end of the year, hiring people at all levels, from junior to staff engineer. However, they don't seem to have their own HR system; all recruitment work is outsourced. So, you can only get interview opportunities by waiting on LinkedIn or directly emailing headhunters (you can contact me if you need their contact information).

treatment

Regarding compensation, I tentatively spoke with a headhunter, and the feedback was very positive. It seems they are willing to match Bay Area salaries for engineers, which is different from people's previous impression of Walmart. Of course, Walmart Lab and Walmart are two separate groups.

Interview process

Speaking of interviews, you can find all sorts of experiences online, but I have to say—everything from last week is outdated! Let me first describe the previous interview format so you can see where the "easy" interviews came from. First, a headhunter contacts you and asks you to come to the office on Friday. Once there, several directors or managers take turns chatting with you for about an hour, and then you can go home and wait for a response. During the chat, there will be some very simple algorithm questions, basically plagiarism checks—the kind you could figure out on the spot. Other questions are just from your resume. Afterwards, you're given a homework project, and the following week you bring the completed project back to the office for an in-person presentation.

However, all of that changed last week. The new interview process is more difficult but also more straightforward and brutal. The new process is that everyone is sent to a lecture hall (about 20-30 people) on Friday morning to listen to a half-hour company presentation (by the VP or manager). Then, they are taken away one by one by engineers for one-on-one interviews. Note that these are not conducted by managers but by engineers, so algorithms and technical concepts are essential, but the difficulty varies greatly, as there is no fixed standard. After completing the first round, a project is assigned, which is then presented the following Friday. Note that the first round is held in the morning and the second round in the afternoon, so it seems that the engineers don't work at all on Fridays, spending the entire day conducting interviews.

Summarize

You can find out online what Walmart Labs does. Basically, it wants to compete with Amazon. Amazon is expanding from online to offline, while Walmart hopes to leverage its existing offline system advantages to expand online. Personally, I think if they do it well, they can turn the tide, since offline advantages are much harder to accumulate.

The Reston office primarily handles data-related business. They've rented one floor and plan to rent two more floors on the same floor. The investment is substantial, but compared to traditional tech companies, Walmart Lab seems to fall short. Perhaps it's due to a different origin; the culture just doesn't feel quite right.

If you're interested, hurry up! If you don't have access, you can message me privately for my email address.