I submitted my resume at a job fair and was contacted several months later when a position opened for a phone interview. The phone interview lasted approximately 45 minutes and consisted mostly of behavioral questions and an introduction to the job tasks.

I was invited for a site visit a few weeks later and completed a full-day interview with multiple current employees, as well as a research presentation.

Half of the interviews were pleasant and focused primarily on behavioral questions. The other half were very difficult, consisting of numerous high-stress questions about problem-solving and technical topics from my graduate coursework.

I imagine their purpose was to push me to my intellectual limit and observe how I handled stress.

Several people mentioned the constant stress of the job and the difficulty in maintaining work/life balance. They did not present it as a desirable role, especially considering its demanding nature.

Given a basic description of a machine/tool and a scenario (e.g., "this readout isn't working"), how would you go about fixing it?