I applied online. I interviewed at Applied Materials
Interview
The interview process was informal and it was a good chance to know the hiring team. There were 4 rounds of interview to go through. However, salary negotiations was a little more tricky and difficult.
I applied online. I interviewed at Applied Materials (Santa Ana, CA) in Feb 2021
Interview
Got a screening call 3 months after applying. This was a straightforward interview with a few fluid mechanics/gas dynamics related questions.
2 weeks later I got a call for 2nd round, which had 5 video call technical interviews of 30 mins each (with VP, engineering director, etc.). 30 min slots felt too short for any meaningful discussion as some of the interviewers joined the call late.
The hiring manager however seemed genuinely interested during the interview and interviewed me for 30 min extra. Interview questions were moderately difficult. They told me that I will hear back a Yes or No in a month's time.
Seeing the interest shown by hiring manager, I was very optimistic about getting the job. But the hiring manager never got back to me. I emailed him TWICE to check the status of my application, but he didn't have the decency to reply.
So overall, the experience was awful. I spent a full day going through the interview process, the hiring manager himself spent more than an hour on my interview, but he did not care to spend 2 mins to send me status update on the application.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most interviewers asked very specific questions related to the semiconductor industry (vapor deposition etc.), which won't really help them evaluate my expertise as I have no prior experience in that industry. The hiring manager asked interesting questions related to fundamentals of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and turbulence, which definitely would help them evaluate me.
It was a phone call from the engineering manager after 1 year of applying for job. The phone interview consisted of basic resume questions and 5 technical problems (undergrad level). I didn't hear back from them after the interview even after dropping multiple emails about the position of the application status.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I don't remember the questions but they were basic undergrad level problems ranging from cfd, heat transfer, structural analysis to design etc.