I met a SpaceX employee at a conference and gave him my resume, but I didn't think anything would come of it. Three weeks later, I received a phone call from HR, who wanted to schedule an interview for the following day.

That same day, a manager called me for a 30-minute technical interview. We immediately dove into technical questions about one project listed on my resume. He focused on a specific aspect of that experience and asked very technical questions about the analysis I performed.

After that, he shifted to more theoretical questions, asking why I approached the analysis in that way, how I would expect the results to change under different conditions, and what potential errors might be inherent to my simulation/analysis.

We delved deeply into the details until I eventually told my interviewer that, at that point, I was making educated guesses. He responded that it was fine, and we concluded the interview. I called a friend shortly after and we laughed about how poorly the whole thing seemed to have gone. Two hours later, I received a call from HR extending an offer.

What did you do while serving in a given role on a project?