Applied online, the recruiter called me for a phone interview. It took 15 minutes, and she told me that the team that is hiring would be excited about it, etc., and told me that I should do a second phone interview with the hiring manager.

It took about a week before the second interview. The second interview with the hiring manager took less than 5 minutes (yes, around 5 minutes!!). I sent my resume and a 2-3 page slide before the second interview. He (the hiring manager) is from the same institute I am working at, and with some similarities in research, he exactly knew what kind of graduate/postdoc work that I dealt with and how it could fit for the position. He also briefly explained his group and where I might travel if the work needed me to. It sounded very positive overall!! That is why the phone interview took 5 minutes.

I went for the onsite interview after about a month. The hiring manager who called me was not within the hiring team. (If he is hiring, why was he not there?)

It was a cluster hire, so overall, it doesn't seem very important how much potential you as an individual have. It matters whether you can do mundane work, fit in the position, and do what you are told. Literally, any STEM PhD with some good communication skills can fit these criteria.

I understood through communication with other candidates that everyone has different backgrounds, and their level of research experience can vary a lot. I mean, PhDs from low-tier schools in the middle of nowhere to pretty decent levels of graduate research experience and good communication skills.

If you have completed a PhD in engineering or STEM as a whole, and have some good background (published several first-author papers, gave several oral presentations in national conferences, did time-sensitive research work, etc.), it is easy to know what level of research another person has just by talking for 10-15 minutes.

So during this hiring event, there was plenty of time for candidates to talk to each other. Not everyone is so competitive, or I don't remember anyone from any big-name schools.

The presentation was 30 minutes with 7-8 hiring managers and some engineers in the company. At the 29th minute, the recruiter came in to kick me out so they could go with the next candidate's presentation.

After the cluster presentations, one after another, the 7-8 hiring managers picked their likes and interviewed the candidates in two 30-minute sessions.

At lunchtime, there was some time to socialize.

Overall, the interview was nice. The recruiters and hiring managers were nice.

1. You were doing all that glamorous scientific research, and we don't always do such exciting things; a lot of times, the work can be mundane. Can you do mundane work?

2. Tell me about yourself.

3. What is your biggest achievement?

4. What is the practical use of this? (A well-known X-ray spectroscopic technique was shown in a PPT slide)

5. Why don't you become a professor? Why did you leave academia?

6. How many first-author publications did you have? (Asked during lunchtime)