I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Applied Materials in Feb 2021
Interview
The whole process was pretty fast and smooth. Got phone interviews from the hiring manager and a senior team member. Answered a few questions (tech/bq = 3/7). Hiring manager set up the team interview within one week. Interviewed with 11 people in total, plus a 1-hour talk from 9 am to 5 pm. Very tiring.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What was the biggest challenge you had in graduate school? Did you have any conflict with your collaborator?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA) in Aug 2016
Interview
There were two phone interviews. Within two weeks of those interviews, I got a call for an on-site interview. I was interviewed by 8 people within the same group (ranging from peers to senior managers to group manager). The interviewers were very nice and accommodating and asked questions to see how one approaches a problem. Basically they will try to see if you are able to connect the dots in any given scenario.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA) in Jun 2014
Interview
I chatted with a recruiter at a Materials Research Society career fair. Eight weeks later, I received an email and set up a phone call with a technical group manager. That call was mostly technical and questions were asked to see if I was intelligent.
An on sight interview followed. A delayed flight threw off the timing of the interviews (which were ~5 one-on-one conversations), and I spent 20 minutes alone in a conference room waiting for someone to show up. Again, questions were mostly technical with some problem solving think-on-my-feet exercises. It was Friday afternoon, and some of the interviewers were visibly exhausted and had not read any of my application materials. They appeared to dislike their jobs, and by the end of the day it was evident that I was a poor cultural fit for the company.
I sent a "thank you for your time" follow-up email and never heard anything again.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How might I troubleshoot a film delamination problem?