I received a call from a SpaceX internal recruiter about three months after originally applying online. I had originally applied for a structural engineer job, but they wanted to interview me for a propulsion components design job instead.

The recruiter asked me some general questions about my interests, then had me set up a technical phone interview with a couple of engineers for several days later.

The technical interview was with two of their current propulsion designers. They asked me some general technical questions about the Dragon spacecraft (thrust of the Draco and SuperDraco engines), had me explain projects from my resume that I had worked on, and then asked a few technical questions about my past experiences (e.g., why I used a certain material, how I could improve a design).

The phone interview lasted about 45 minutes. They said they would get back to me within three days, and the next day I received an email requesting an interview at their facility in Hawthorne, CA.

Flight, hotel, and rental car to LA were arranged and all covered by SpaceX. I was asked to prepare a 15-minute presentation in PowerPoint about a project I had worked on to present first at my interview. This was somewhat difficult, as my main design experience was on projects that were proprietary, so I had to mostly discuss academic work.

When I arrived at their office for my interview, I was met by the recruiter and then given a tour of the offices and manufacturing facility. Then we went to a conference room where I gave my presentation to about 10 people, who I believe were mostly other propulsion team members. They asked me a few questions about my presentation.

I then had lunch with one of the other employees at their in-house restaurant before proceeding with my one-on-one interviews.

My first one-on-one interview was with the director of the Dragon propulsion system, who simply gave me a written test on GD&T practices (calculating tolerance zones) and then had me finish dimension and material annotations on a drawing by hand. Other than that, he only asked me general questions about my career interests.

The second one-on-one interview was more difficult, where the interviewer asked me to simply start designing a part by hand, with tolerances, datums, and dimensions, off the top of my head. He specifically asked to design a bolted connection to resist shear stress and asked how I would calculate the torque rating for a bolt to apply a specific preload. I did not do well on this part, as I have had only limited experience with GD&T and no experience with bolt preloading.

After my interviews, the recruiter told me they would get back to me within three weeks. After three weeks went by with no contact, I emailed the recruiter for an update but received no reply. After several months, I gave up on the job. I eventually received emails saying the position had been eliminated/filled.

Overall, the interviews got progressively more difficult as they went on, and for the design job, they heavily stressed knowledge of GD&T and materials. I believe the main reason I did not get the job was my lack of relevant experience, although I found their expectations steep considering they knew I had essentially entry-level experience going in. Besides this, the interview experience was positive, apart from them not even contacting me after my final interview.

What is the thrust rating of the Draco and Super Draco engines?

How would you design a connection to resist shear stress?

How would you calculate the bolt torque required to produce a given preload?

How would you calculate tolerance zones for part features with GD&T?