Whether you are looking to hire someone for your deep-tech company, or are a candidate hoping to score a job in the growing deep tech industry, knowing the right questions for a job interview are important. Deep technology companies interview differently than other businesses, as they need much more technical skills, such as programming. Because of this, most deep tech companies have a rather small pool of qualified candidates to choose from. While this may be beneficial to a potential candidate, having the perfect fit in a deep tech company is about knowing the company’s expectations, and passing the interview.
While there are many questions to ask for a deep tech job interview, we at Deep Tech Insider have narrowed it down to what we believe are the five most important.
- What deep tech platforms are you familiar with and how proficient are you with them?
This question gets directly at the qualifications of the candidate, and their comfortability in deep tech. This can help better determine it a candidate would be a good fit for the position, based on their proficiency.
- Which do you think is more valuable: model accuracy or model performance?
Asking this question reveals some of the motivations of the candidate, as well as their priorities. This can also give you insight into their work methods.

- Tell me about any side technology projects you have.
A true deep tech professional will be curious and ambitious, and having a side project can keep their skills renewed and fresh. In a job interview, asking this question can show you if an individual is driven or not, and if they learn new things on their own, without management.
- Describe for me a time when your technology malfunctioned, how did you get past that?
This is a variation on a standard job interview question, but it is especially important to ask in deep tech because technology failure is often part of the R&D process. Seeing how a candidate deals with failure can reveal true character.
- What are you expecting this company to achieve in five years?
This is an excellent question to ask because not only does it reveal the candidate’s expectation for the job and the company, but reveals how the company may be publicly seen. This information can help with marketing strategies and other aspects.
These questions are important to ask in a deep tech job interview because they are specific to the deep tech industry. They reveal how well a candidate fits in that industry, and whether they would be a good fit for a deep tech company.
References:
“DeepTech Interview Questions.” Glassdoor, 2021.
Half, Robert. “17 Must-Ask Tech Interview Questions.” www.roberthalf.com, May 12, 2020.
Indeed Editorial Team. “30 Deep Learning Interview Questions (and Sample Answers).” Indeed Career Guide, April 2021.
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