I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Viasat (Carlsbad, CA) in Jan 2020
Interview
I was contacted by Talent Acquisition and was scheduled for a 20 minute screening phone call. A week later I was scheduled for a 45 minute technical phone call interview with the hiring manager. Two weeks later I was contacted about an on-site interview, and gave availability and details for flight info. I was flown down and put up in a hotel then interviewed the next day and had 3 individual 45 minute technical interviews with members of the team as well as an hour lunch with the hiring manager who also gave me a tour.
Everything was incredibly well organized and scheduled. Talent Acquisition was fast to reply and very friendly and professional. East Campus is absolutely beautiful!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Interviews were set up more as conversations, they asked me about a lot of stuff. Past internships, school projects, school involvement. They went into detail about my internship duties and my thesis topic. I was also asked a few behavioral questions and a couple fundamental electronic questions (filters, amps). Plenty of time to ask questions about anything.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Viasat (San Diego, CA) in May 2019
Interview
At first I got a phone call from the recruiter for a 20 minute intro call. They were simple questions like what's your proudest moment, what's an example of a time you overcame a challenge, etc.
Next stage was a technical phone call. The Viasat recruiter said that the hiring manager will set up a phone call so that he can see what I know. I got an email from the hiring manager scheduling a phone call with another person. I thought it was a bit strange since I was supposed to talk to the hiring manager himself, but went along with it.
I nailed the technical phone interview and knew nearly everything he threw at me. The person I talked to on the phone was an engineer, but was explaining that he was new to this process and wasn't exactly sure how it went. A little weird, but I understood. The questions were all about engineering and I gave great answers. The guy was really nice and we had a good conversation after the questions, since he went to the same university as me and all. I found him very relatable. He said I did well on the questions and I had good speaking, and did good overall. He said he is sure that I should hear back from HR soon.
I follow up the next day, emailing the recruiter (since it wouldn't let me reply to the hiring manager or the engineer who I had a phone call with. I couldn't find him on LinkedIn either) to thank them for the interview and opportunity. It took over a week after the interview for the recruiter to email me saying they won't continue because the hiring manager wants someone with more RF knowledge.
Huh? I'm so confused by this. I did well on the technical questions and my past internships and background are in RF engineering. I had a great interview and the engineer said I did well too. I strongly believe I deserved a chance at the onsite interview. It's also weird that the hiring manager wants someone who knows more but he didn't even talk to me at all, when they said he would.
The whole process took over a month because they took a long time to respond to me. Over a week between each stage. I would reply within hours. Honestly, I feel like I was just being used to fill some interview quota. Its weird that the hiring manager never talked to me when he was supposed to, he set up a phone call with an engineer who was "new to the process" (Looking back I think they just shipped me off to do a bogey interview with anyone), and then even after I could answer any questions they threw at me, I didn't even move onto the next stage. There wasn't any way I could do better on that interview. I know I just sound salty but I feel like I wasn't given a fair chance at all.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
What's a low pass filter and how do you create it?
