Brief Background:
A friend forwarded me an email from an Intel recruiter who was looking for candidates at their university. As a shot in the dark, I emailed my resume describing why I believe I would be a good fit for the role. After 10 days I got an email from the recruiter asking if I was interested in a phone interview.
Phone Interview:
2 days later I had my phone interview. The first 45 min were a lot of questions about my grad school research, conflict resolution, team work, instrumentation etc. The technical questions tested my grasp on the scientific aspects of my research (i.e. a PhD proposal/thesis defense type of questions) as well as a my knowledge (scientific and operational) of the instruments I used during my PhD. Behavioral questions required me to give specific examples of: conflict resolution with PhD advisor, mentorship of junior team members, dealing with difficult team members, personal weaknesses and their remediation etc. Overall, the interview was quite thorough and the recruiter came across as a knowledgeable and friendly person. It was made clear that the position is not a research-based on, but rather a process engineering one. For the last 15 min, I was encouraged to ask questions about the role and the company.
10 days after the phone interview, the recruiter emailed me a week later to tell me that I was being invited for an on-site interview (Portland, OR) and asked for my availability amongst 3 dates (3, 4 and 5 weeks out). The interview day was also briefly described (seminar and 1-1 interviews with team members). ~3 days later I received an email for a background check from Intel HR. Since I had not received any confirmation about interview date (from HR) after a week since I gave my date preference, I emailed the recruiter, who followed up. 2 days after that, I got an email from Intel HR initiating the procedures to bring me on-site. A week before my interview, the recruiter sent me a detailed email (schedule, directions, etc.) for my interview.
On-site Interview:
In addition to preparing a research talk for a broader (technical) audience, I worked on revising various material science concepts, semiconductor processes and putting down all the instrument troubleshooting I had performed over the course of my PhD. Moreover, glassdoor reviews also gave me an idea about the typical questions.
The day started at 8a with a meeting with the recruiter (host) who conducted the phone interview. Briefly, I was told what to expect from the day and given a more detailed schedule with names of people I would be meeting. My first interview was with the area manager (AM; 2 levels up), who asked me general questions about my PhD research and what I wished I could have done additionally/differently during my PhD. This was followed by my seminar which included ~7-8 people; most of them would interview me later in the day. I was asked a lot of probing questions on my research by everyone. The questions were of varying technical depths similar to those you would get at a scientific conference/PhD program talks. I could only finish ~70% of my talk in the 1 hour that was allotted, due to continuous questions. Overall, make sure your talk can be understood by a general PhD-level audience, don’t try to present all your PhD results and plan for interruptions.
The other interviews that followed (total 6), were with group leaders (1 level up) and PTD engineers (same level, different years of experience). The questions were similar to the ones in the phone interview, but I got mostly technical questions.
General Questions:
Which one of your PhD projects would you like to see being pursued further, why?
Describe the set-up you made/used in the lab? What were the challenges?
Principle of operation of XRD(Derive Braggs law) and SEM. What are the types of electrons generated? Which atoms (lighter or heavier) look brighter/darker in the image? How many atoms are there in a unit cell for the material I used in my PhD. How do I get a P-type or N-type semiconductor? Specific instance of instrument troubleshooting and in-detail description of what you did. Why do you want to work for intel? Are you interviewing at other companies?
Overall, I was glad that I took the time to prepare; I thought the interview went quite well.
I had lunch with the relatively new PTD engineers who talked about their experience working at Intel. Definitely a good time to get a feel for the work-culture and time commitments.
I got the offer after 4 weeks; accepted since the people I met on-site seemed happy at the jobs (despite the hectic nature of the work).
Overall, I was very happy with the interview process and credit goes to my host who was very prompt and well-organized.