Hughes Network Systems Hardware Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

We had a 30 min phone call with the manager about behavioral stuff, then a 4 hour virtual interview. The virtual one had 4 rounds where we talked about my projects and resume and some technical questions.

I applied through a campus event. The whole process went like this: First, there was an on-campus interview where they asked basic questions about my resume, what I want to do, and my interests. They also asked if I had any questions. This interview lasted about 40 minutes. Then, about a month later, I had the on-site interviews. This was a two-day thing. The first day was a welcome reception event where I could hang out with other candidates and employees, and learn about the company and roles. It lasted about 2 hours. The actual interviews were the next day. I had four one-on-one interviews, each about 45 minutes long, back-to-back. We started the day with a quick briefing over breakfast. Then they called us and paired us with interviewers who took us to the rooms. It's easy to get lost there, so maybe note down HR contacts. The interviews were like this: a) First one: about current research, resume projects, digital signal processing, digital modulation, and some C programming. b) Second one: resume stuff, why I left my old job, and fabrication/material selection for my projects. c) Third one: design questions about a project, focusing on parameters. d) Fourth one: RF & microwave engineering, antenna measurements, Smith chart, impedance matching, and research. After all that, I assume they do a background check before making an offer.

I initially talked to a Hughes recruiter at a career fair. About 2-3 weeks later, I got a call for a phone interview about RF and DSP. They asked basic questions on path loss, DSP, and my course projects. Then, about 3-4 days after that, HR called me to invite me to the College Day event at Hughes. At Hughes, I had 4 interviews back-to-back, each about 45 minutes long. The interviews focused on microwave link budget design, system design constraints, digital communication basics, transmitter/receiver designs with different modulation schemes, choosing modulation schemes based on conditions, BER curves, matched filtering, and coherent detection. They also asked about FIR vs. IIR filters, linear phase, group velocity, and their pros/cons. A good portion of the interviews were dedicated to discussing my resume projects, so be ready for that. Exactly one week later, HR let me know Hughes wanted to offer me a full-time job.