I found out about Koch's internship program through my university's career fair. I filled out the application on the Koch hiring website. Filling out the application is easy and quick: you upload your resume and it is parsed for information, so a lot of boxes are automatically filled out with what you put on your resume. There is also a short section of behavioral questions. About a week later, I was informed that I could schedule a time for an on-campus interview. That interview was about half an hour long and fairly easy. All the questions were about my behavior. The interviewer did ask me a little bit about my technical knowledge to find out what sort of position I was looking for, but the interviewer emphasized that Koch does not expect interns to have extensive technical knowledge.
A few weeks after that first interview, I was informed that I had made it to the second (and final) round of interviews, which take place in Wichita. Koch paid for a hotel room and reimbursed me for travel expenses. This final round of interviews consisted of two back-to-back hour-long interviews. The first interview was, again, focused on behavioral questions, especially on dealing with difficult customers/co-workers and process improvements (what processes I use to solve problems). The second interview was more technical in the sense that I was asked what programming languages I had experience with and what sort of programs I had created. This interview was still mostly behavioral however, and was focused on the same kinds of questions. The interviewer emphasized that Koch focuses on finding interns who fit the company values, rather than just focusing on technical skills.
Read up on the Koch guiding principles and look up common behavioral questions and you will be fine. And, of course, be prepared to answer basic interview questions ("Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "Why do you want to work for Koch?" "Why software development?" etc). Everyone I talked to was laid back and personable, which helped the process go smoothly.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you were creative in solving a problem.
I applied through college or university. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Koch (Logan, UT) in Sep 2018
Interview
Interview mainly focused on personality traits over technical skills. The interviewer will be testing you to make sure you are being honest. Just make sure you are being 100% honest and there won't be a problem.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you messed up, and needed to explain your wrong doing to your supervisor.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Koch (Wichita, KS) in Sep 2018
Interview
I applied before the career fair at K-State in the fall. They hosted a meet and greet ice cream social the evening before the on campus interview.
That first interview was 30 minutes and strictly behavioral based so situations and how I handled it. Felt slightly negative at first with questions leaning towards times I failed, needed help from pier, and just topics that were not very happy or fun.
Next set of interviews were at Koch's headquarters in Wichita. Consisted of back-to-back 30 minute interviews with people in the IT department so slightly more related to the field and skills but still very situational based. These interviews were more conversational and more enjoyable than the first. We were told at the beginning of the day that we had been selected as the top 20% and that these interviews were less weeding out and more seeing where we would fit best.
HQ was a great place to interview and see the work environment.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Describe a time that you failed and what did you do about it.
I applied online. I interviewed at Koch (Reno, NV) in Apr 2017
Interview
The interview took place in two parts: 1) a phone interview with a recruiting specialist in Wichita, and 2) a three part in-person interview at the Reno, NV office. The first interview was a generic personality/work ethic interview with questions such as "what is your greatest strength/weakness". The phone interview lasted about 30-40 minutes. The second round of interviews included an interview with the following positions: 1) an hour long in-person interview with the director of strategy/Reno office manager, 2) a 30 minute skype interview with a manager in the I.T. department in Wichita, and 3) a 30 minute skype interview with the manager of the cloud architecture department. Overall, the interviews were focused upon your fit in their culture and your previous experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you experienced conflict within a team.