I applied through their website and received an email from the recruiter a couple of days later. She arranged a phone interview with the group leader and two engineers simultaneously. They asked a bit about my experience, a few C++ questions, and some very basic Unix shell command questions – I did not expect such basic questions.

After a few days, I was invited for an onsite interview with this group. I had 10 one-on-one interviews, plus HR at the end of the day. My interview was scheduled for 8:30 AM with HR, but they did not show up. I started my one-on-one interviews with engineers at 9:30 AM.

Most questions were about C++, software engineering practices, and networks (TCP/UDP). There were a few of those annoying trick questions. I got to talk about some of my projects with a few of the engineers, who then asked about some specifics.

In the interview with the group leader, he described the project for the position at a high level and emphasized that the work might get hard often, with many releases and pressure. He warned me about this multiple times, as my previous employer dealt with research projects and did not have as many hard deadlines.

More than a month passed without any feedback or refunds for my expenses during the trip – not very professional of them. Overall, it was good for me to see how I did not fit in with that group. The vast majority of engineers are from the same country, and I prefer a more diverse group. Also, most of them looked very tired, which is not a good sign.

Benefits seemed to be very good, and the location can't get any better. Maybe I'll try a position with another group at QC.

Tell me a joke :)