Applied online and was contacted the day after by a recruiter. After a brief phone interview with the recruiter, I was asked to schedule a phone interview with the manager of the department. After that phone interview I was invited for an on-site interview in Hawthorne. Eventually was notified they had gone with a more experienced candidate for the position.

First had a phone screen interview based on giving my resume at a career fair. Asked basic questions about my previous experiences, then asked if I knew some basic rocket propulsion like define thrust, Isp, characteristic velocity. Pretty straight forward, but didn't really get a good vibe from the interviewer. Few weeks later asked me to come to TX for onsite interview. Interview consisted of an HR interview, a site tour, lunch interview, and technical interviews. HR interview felt pretty unprofessional. Didn't really want to answer my questions and gave very vague answers. Site tour and lunch interview seemed pretty good although it seems everyone is some type of manager. Apparently there was some type of scheduling issue so they cancelled one of the technical interview but had me sit around by myself for like an hour. Technical interview didn't go so well mostly cause it seemed like 2 guys were asking conflicting questions and I couldn't figure out what they wanted. Also talked about my research but one guy was convinced that one of the claims I made about my research was false (which any expert in my field actually would know to be true). The atmosphere seemed casual (everyone in jeans and t-shirts) but I really got the feeling that everyone seems a little edgey and maybe even a little cliqueish. It really sounded like the way they select people to give offers to is: once they narrow it down to the actually qualified applicants, they have some sort of vote on who they liked the best. It's possible I misunderstood but if that actually is the case it seems a little unprofessional. Everyone does have a work first attitude here and they definitely accomplish a lot of great stuff but even if I had been offered a job I wouldn't have accepted it since I don't love rockets enough to want to work on them 60+ hours a week in possibly unpleasant weather. For someone who loves rockets and is a workoholic, you probably would fit in fine. That's just not me.