Kansas City National Security Campus Interview Questions
& Process

I first connected with the company at my college's career fair back in mid-September. They set up an interview for the very next day. Then, I had my second interview in person at their office in early November. The first interview was with two regular engineers and mostly involved behavioral questions. The second interview had three separate 1-on-1 meetings with managers from different teams who might want to hire me. The first manager I met was apparently the most interested. Most of the questions were behavioral, but some were specific to the team's work and my past experience. About a week after that, the first manager I met called me with the offer.

I had a screen call first, then a 1:1 interview, and finally a panel interview. It was pretty straightforward, they really focused on my resume experiences. The questions were all behavioral, about my past experiences and asking for examples. Everyone was really friendly and a good listener.

Started with a recruiter screen, then an on-site team panel interview. The interviewers were unprofessional and seemed to have political biases, cutting me off and demeaning my experience. One interviewer was arrogant and unqualified. None of them seemed to have the right background to evaluate DS/ML candidates, even asking about tools not in the job description and failing to relate them to listed tools. The job posting didn't match what they were looking for, and they didn't seem to have read it. It was mostly behavioral questions, with a couple of technical implementation questions. The team didn't understand the 'science' part of data science, focusing only on analytics.

When they do mass hiring, expect the "speed dating" style of interview where all the candidates are in a larger conference room at their own table. With COVID, that had changed, but it may return. During my time, I've been on a few interview panels post the HR screening. For engineering/engineering technician roles, expect mostly behavioral and a few technical questions. The technical is not to test your textbook engineering knowledge, but how you used your skills to solve a problem. How you thought outside the box, and worked with others. Know your typical strength and weaknesses, how you handled a disagreement with a teammate, when you thought outside the box, explain your experience using xyz.... And if you interview in person, when the pens stop writing, it's time to stop answering the question. Be detailed/thorough, but concise.