The interview process consists of two separate 90-minute panel sessions. In each session, candidates begin with a 30-minute presentation to showcase their technical background and project experience. This is followed by a roughly 15–20 minute Q&A segment where panelists ask in-depth questions about the presentation. The remaining time is dedicated to behavioral, technical, and problem-solving questions to evaluate communication skills, engineering judgment, and the ability to handle real-world challenges.

I had an one-hour phone interview with the person who recommended me. Then, after about a month, they wanted me to fly in for an on-site interview. I gave a 30-min presentation about my PhD work and the interviewers would frequently break in to ask sharp questions on the fly. Then, six separate one-on-one interviews followed, and all the six interviewers well PhD process engineers. They asked a variety of technical, behavioral, and casual questions. Regarding technical, they asked questions related to vacuum science, thin film deposition techniques (PVD, CVD, and ALD), semiconductor physics, etc. They wanted to see if I had strong fundamentals and evaluate my critical thinking and problem solving skills.