I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at General Atomics (Poway, CA) in Oct 2022
Interview
Extremely unprofessional and rude. Due to the nature of work you must be a U.S. Citizen to enter the closed off portion of the G.A. campus. You do this by going to the "public" building of G.A. that isn't guarded and getting a name tag from the front desk. Then you head onto the guarded/gated building.
Now, if you have an interviewer (or set of them) who isn't incompetent, are actually being interviewed at a time when the company is hiring (it's fun to know some people internally who later let you know that you were just bullied for no reason), and haven't been already rejected but just there to meet some status quo you'll be met at the gate at your interview time by your interviewer and escort around the facilities. You will then be brought to the equivalent of a tiny closet (If you are of any reasonable height you will be uncomfortably pushed up against the wall by the over sized table) for the programming technical interview, after you'll chat about what you've done with 2 extra people who enter the room, and maybe even get a tour and then your offer.
Now if you're in the unfortunate position, you'll be held by the guard as no one will be there to escort you for your interview, you'll then wait 15 minutes wondering if this is a joke/part of the interview and try to connect with hiring staff who can try and figure out what's going on. Then you will be met with someone you were not aware of being part of the interview process, led to that same tiny room and asked to do the same programming technical.
Now, some more information about that cramped room of my experience. Your screen is displayed on a projector, to make it easier to ask for help or what's going on possibly. But you will probably end up using it as your primary monitor as the main display monitor you use will blink every minute to a black screen for 5-10 seconds. You can ask if you can adjust it, or even ask if this is normal, and you might just be gas-lit into thinking there's no issue. It seems that the solutions will also be open in another note pad on the same computer you're on, or that was someone else's solution. They don't try to make a clean slate or comforting interview environment it seems.
Anyways, after the technical 2 more interviewers come in to join in. And while maybe there intent was to really "dig deep" into what you have done and your resume, it comes off more as condescending bullying. You'll then be escorted out by one of the interviewer's interns, who may try to apologize for the brash and rude behavior.
I understand that I was interviewing in an unfortunate time, a major down swing for many, but I was lucky enough to have many more interviews and even land a job quickly after this one in Oct/Nov 2022, but none of the other interviews were as (six letter expletive) up as General Atomic's.
What amazes me even more is, this is not an unusual experience among many I know who interviewed there and those who currently work there.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Programming Technical involved C language and undeveloped ("fill in the blanks"-style) flight control system, I would post the entire answer and solution as I memorized it, but not sure how okay that would be so here are very direct hints:
*Know how hex values relate to memory addresses
*Know how to pass, reference, and de-reference pointers and double pointers
*Know how to print elements of a struct
I applied online. I interviewed at General Atomics (Palmdale, CA) in Nov 2023
Interview
Very easy, straight forward. Basic questions of yourself and background. Question on what you bring to the company and why we should hire you . The interview recruiter was very nice and listened very well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What’s your biggest weakness and biggest strengths
Two 30 minute interviews and a 1 hour interview over the phone with the hour interview being very technical. Interviews were nearly every day since I was about to graduate.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe your research as it pertains to the role.