Corning Manufacturing Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

My interview process was quite unique. It started with an in-person interview at a professional conference, which was also where I first learned about Corning. Then, I had two panel-style virtual interviews, each with three interviewers. It was clear the interviewers really liked each other and got along well. Corning seems to have a great community of people.

The interview process started with two one-hour technical phone screenings. They shared info about Corning's products and operations, so reading up on that beforehand would be smart. The questions focused on process control fundamentals, particularly model predictive and PID control, as well as multivariate analysis topics like PCA and PLS. After that, I was flown out for an on-site interview. This involved a one-hour presentation of my PhD thesis, followed by eight separate one-hour one-on-one interviews. Half of these were technical, and the other half were focused on personality assessment. I spent about three weeks preparing for this. To really do well, you need to prepare thoroughly. Everyone I met was really nice and easy to talk to, and I enjoyed our chats. I got to meet the whole team, which was great. Overall, it was a positive experience.

So I was contacted by a few HR folks at Corning. The first one set up a phone screen. I really wanted an in-person, so I ended up talking to the hiring manager instead. It was kind of chaotic though, people kept popping in and talking to him. But it went okay, lasted about 2 hours. Then he asked me back for a presentation and a group interview with a bunch of managers from different departments - quality, operations, plant, product development, and tech service. That took half a day. They said they'd decide in a week. I followed up after two weeks, and they were still considering people. Then they said the third week, but I heard nothing. The job got reposted a few days later.