I was first contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn in September 2015, who asked if I was interested in applying. I had a quick phone screen with that recruiter shortly thereafter and was put in touch with a recruiter in a different department more aligned with my interests soon after. This second phone screen was fairly difficult. This particular recruiter had an engineering degree and really grilled me on the technical aspects of a few of my projects. I'm not sure if this is normal for recruiters at SpaceX, but keep in mind that this phone screen may not necessarily be an easy one.

I then had a phone interview with an engineer who asked me a ton of technical questions about my projects, as well as a few general technical questions and a brain teaser (all outlined below). After that interview, I didn't hear back from SpaceX at all for four months. I emailed and called my recruiter multiple times but never heard back. I assumed they were not moving forward with my application and continued my job search, applying with other companies.

You can imagine my surprise when a third recruiter called me in late January 2016, asking if I would be interested in "re-engaging" with SpaceX. I was set up for a phone interview with a second, more senior, engineer who asked more technical questions about my projects. He was very apologetic about it taking them so long to get back to me. It was a really interesting discussion and was a very enjoyable interview on the whole, really forcing me to rethink certain aspects of my projects from the perspective of a rocketry engineer. A few days later, I was contacted and asked to come out for the on-site interview.

When I got to HQ in Hawthorne, I was given a tour of the facility and then gave a presentation to about eight engineers on a technical project I had worked on. It was supposed to be 15 minutes long but took about an hour with all of their questions. After the presentation, I was taken to a separate room to wait while they debated whether or not I should move on to the next stage of the interview process (one-on-one interviews with each of them).

In the end, I did not make it any farther in the process. It's hard to say why exactly; I thought I nailed the presentation and answered every single one of their questions accurately and succinctly. All my recruiter said was that they didn't think I'd be a good fit on their team, though she also mentioned I could try again when I had more experience. That would make sense considering I'm currently entry-level, though I do have multiple internships under my belt.

Cantilevered beam with a point load: failure location? Statically indeterminate problems. Design for corrosion problems. How would design change if the product lifecycle was tripled? Any testing needed? Three lightbulb problem (Google it).