I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at SpaceX (Los Angeles, CA) in Jul 2019
Interview
I was contacted by a recruiter who told me to apply to one of two specific positions online. I had two phone interviews the following week and they flew me to LA for an in-person interview the week after. The in-person interview begins with a 20 min presentation about your 1st or 2nd most technically challenging project to a number of team leads. They will grill you about this project and various aspects of it for about 30 minutes. They will then discuss if you should proceed to the next phase. If it is a yes you will then meet with each of them for 30 minute 1-on-1 interviews and answer their questions. At any point in this process, they may decide you are not suited and the recruiter will escort you out.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
-How would you modify your design to be mass-produced?
-Can you explain the inefficiencies of the design and what you would change to alleviate them?
-Given a longer timeline, what would you have changed about your design process?
-Was there ever a time you experienced conflict with your team and how did you resolve it?
-What project have you worked on that you were most dedicated to? What contributed to that dedication?
-How would you test a check valve to ensure it releases liquid at 1000psi with a 5psi margin? -What series of operations would you perform to troubleshoot it if it releases early or late?
-How would you reliably apply 1000psi?
-What is the natural frequency of a mass-spring system?
-How does a pressurized cylinder fail? Where and under what conditions?
-Rank the following materials in order of density: titanium, aluminum, steel, carbon fiber
-Rank the above materials in order of yield modulus
-Rank the above materials in order of strength to weight ratio
Brief phone screen with recruiter, then had 2 additional phone interviews with members of the team. Process took about 2 weeks before being ghosted.
The initial phone screen was straightforward: Why SpaceX? Tell me about yourself/experience. What is your GPA? SAT? Would you be willing to work 50+ hours? etc.
1st technical interview was more difficult than I expected. They asked more in-depth questions about my resume to test whether I measured up to what was on my resume. Then they asked fairly difficult questions on how I would design different test setups, what materials would be used, what parameters to consider. These questions weren't something you could prepare for in advance (best way is to just have a good grasp of mechanical engineering in general). At the end I did not believe I did well enough based on my responses, but I was contacted for a 2nd technical interview.
2nd technical interview, the engineer I interviewed with was 15 minutes late and came across as very disinterested and seemed strapped for time. I prepared ahead of time for their particular discipline, but they asked no technical questions and instead focused on my resume. I was told that I would receive a response shortly from the recruiter.
After a follow up email and receiving no reply back. I received a rejection email a few days later with no feedback. Very weird.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why SpaceX? What is your GPA/SAT? Tell me about yourself? What kind of testing have you performed?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at SpaceX (Hawthorne, CA) in Jan 2017
Interview
I had a 15 minute phone interview with a recruiter. A day later I was invited to continue the interview process. The following days I had about 4 phone interviews, with either groups of people or individuals. During these interviews I was asked to explain my resume, experiences, and was asked technical questions.
I was then invited for an on site, where I gave a 20-30 minute presentation which was followed by 30 minutes of questions. Then I was placed in a small room and was interviewed by individuals for about 3 hours.
I was then
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is more stable, a 4 legged chair, or a 5 legged chair.