I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Anduril
No offer
Positive experience
Difficult interview
Application
I applied online. I interviewed at Anduril (Los Angeles, CA) in Nov 2020
Interview
First is a phone screen with a recruiter to cover basics about your experience, then a technical interview with an engineer going over past projects and mechanical engineering fundamentals questions. Final round is onsite with presentation of a past project and 3 45 minute interviews with engineers in different departments.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If I dropped a hot brick into a bucket of cold water, draw a graph of the temperature of the brick and water over time
Phone call with HR recruiter to talk about company culture and objectives and brief overview of experience. Very simple and straight forward.
Next step was with hiring manager for the team - more in depth discussion of experience and handful of first principles questions (GD&T, material properties, etc).
Hiring managers seem to be on the younger end (early 30s).
If rejected, don't expect any further communication to get feedback as it doesn't happen. Recruiters don't try to follow up, which is annoying, but makes sense since they are hiring people so fast and can't keep talking to multiple candidates.
Be prepared to have experience in 4 or 5 different positions. Loft/Configuration/Structures/Tooling/Mech Systems all for a position with minimum 5 years experience. In prototyping this is typical, but they are trying to mass produce so their wants and candidate experiences do not match.
Preliminary telephone interview screen with recruiter was as expected and went well. The next day they informed me that the hiring manager wanted to schedule a Zoom interview with me, which was scheduled the following week. However, 20 minutes before the schedule Zoom interview, the recruiter called me to cancel, saying it will be rescheduled. Ghosted ever since. Six weeks later, and the recruiter won't respond to any email inquiries.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Basic qualifications questions. "Tell me about a full lifecycle design project."