They were only interested in five schools nationwide. It was incredibly important to show up to their meeting at the career fair. I was surprised by the job opportunity. I'd never considered going in this direction previously, but at their meeting I was convinced to pursue further. The interview process consisted of one interview on campus the next day, followed by a 2nd interview on the phone, and finally a 3rd interview on site. They flew me out for the final interview.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Northrop Grumman (Sacramento, CA) in Oct 2012
Interview
I was made aware of a job opportunity through a former member of my research group reaching out to my advisor at school to solicit applications. After a brief phone interview, they brought me on site the following week. That interview was with many people for 20-30 minutes each, 1 HR person, 4-5 engineers, 2 managers (boss and boss's boss). No hard technical questions, but a few from the engineers. Overall people were friendly and helpful. Got an offer the following week.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Asked about ambiguities on antenna arrays (interviewing for a radar group).