Was referred by a friend for this position. The manager called me first for a telephonic interview. The had done research in grad school which aligned with the requirements for this position. The manager asked few questions about my research and explained what they do and what they expect. Things went well and was called onsite in a week.
My first interview was with a staff engineer. He was really good, asked really interlligent questions and helped me when needed. It went really well. The second interviewer asked questions on my research and some on OS frundamentals. And then, I had to interview with an arrogant engineer after lunch. He dint know a damm about my research and or experience. The interviewer and me worked in the same city back in India a few years back, so he started asking about projects that company worked on (and not me). He was just too arrogant. I refused to answer questions after a point even though I thought i knew.
So expect for this one interview, others went fine. But as usually, the company never contacted me back. When I called the recruiter, he said the mgr and team was busy..
So to summarize, from what I have heard and experienced, vmware looks for ppl with specific expertise only. It is not a place u can learn new things, u just develop based on your existing knowledge.