Institute for Defense Analyses Research Interview Questions
& Process

The whole thing took about three months, which felt like such a drag. It started with a recruiter calling me in for a phone chat. Then, about two weeks later, I had a phone interview with someone from the actual department. A week after that, I spoke with a department supervisor on the phone. Next, they asked me to send over my college transcript and a writing sample. A couple of weeks went by, and then I was invited for a whole day of interviews at IDA Headquarters, which also included a presentation. On that day, I gave my presentation and met with around 15 different people. Some of those meetings were group interviews, and others were one-on-one. They said they'd let me know in two weeks, but I heard nothing for a month. By then, I'd already accepted a firm offer elsewhere. I finally managed to get in touch with the recruiter, only to find out I didn't get the job. What was super annoying about this whole drawn-out process was that I could never get a straight answer on the salary for the position. Both times I asked, once during the initial recruiter call and again on my interview day, I was told salary details were proprietary to IDA.

Got an email about 2 weeks after applying. HR helped set up a half-day interview, which ended up being 3-4 weeks later. The department head called before the in-person interview to talk more about the job. The company covered all travel and lodging costs for the interview. I met with 6 people individually, which felt less stressful than a panel. Everyone was really nice and shared info about the company culture, expectations, duties, and opportunities. Got a job offer over the phone a week later.

Applied online and then got contacted by a secretary to schedule a phone interview for later that week, about 20 minutes. The interviewer called on time but ended abruptly at 20 minutes. A few days later, I got an email for an in-person interview that was all day, from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. I got a schedule with 50-minute interviews with HR and 3 research staff, then a 1-hour research talk I had to give to about 20 people. After that was a lunch with other RAs. Then a technical panel interview, which was tough and unexpected. Finally, I met the program director who mentioned limited advancement and expected people to leave after 3-5 years. The questions, apart from the technical panel, were standard. One person read from my resume and asked me to talk about it. The time from application to phone interview was weeks. From the phone interview to the in-person interview was about a week and a half. IDA took a while to get back to me after the in-person, but when I mentioned another offer, they quickly overnighted an offer.