European Space Agency Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process had two stages. First, there was a Cammio Interview with 5 video questions. A couple weeks later, I had a Teams interview with the hiring manager and an HR person where they asked questions related to the job description and ESA missions.

The last interview was pretty tough, maybe the hardest I've faced. Because of COVID, it was online. They sent over some written problems about 30 minutes before, and I had to get ready to present my solutions. The whole thing took about 2 hours and included an intro, discussing the problems I was given, some general tech questions, and then soft-skill questions.

The whole process was about 13 months long. It started with a preselection interview with 2 managers and 1 HR rep, which gave a good impression because the HR rep was open about the process. After 11 months, I got an automated invite for the main interview the day before it happened. The interview itself was with 4 people from ESA-ESTEC and had 4 parts. The first part was general tech questions, some felt like they were trying to get info on what my company does with new tech, and they didn't seem up-to-date on the industry. The second part had questions where all answers were in the ECSS handbook; they weren't hard, but the context was often unclear. The third part was from the project manager, again, questions focused on their specific project, which I wouldn't necessarily know. The last part was with the HR manager, with standard questions. The interview felt like a Q&A session, not a discussion, and the interviewers seemed out of touch with current work practices and industry setups, which gave a negative impression. It was more like an interrogation for an hour. They tested knowledge but didn't discuss experience or skills, and it wasn't clear how they make decisions. They said a decision would be made in 2 weeks, but it took a month to get the outcome.