NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Systems Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied to JPL for a Senior Systems Engineer role in June 2017 and didn't hear back for a few weeks. After I followed up via email, an HR person called me the next day. Then, within a week, I had a follow-up call with the hiring manager, which went well. I was scheduled for an onsite interview a few weeks later. Since it's a government place, they ran some background checks, and once those were cleared, I had a couple of face-to-face interviews with the JPL team. Everything seemed good, and they said they'd call in a few days. A week passed, then another. I followed up again, and within a day, HR called. They were interested but mentioned a hiring freeze and weren't sure if the position was still open. I was bummed but understood. They said they were still interested in hiring me, but it might take a while. A month went by, then two, then three. I emailed monthly to stay updated, and each time they said something was coming soon, but it never happened. Summer turned to Fall, then the holidays. I figured I wouldn't hear anything before the new year. I already had a job, but JPL was too tempting to pass up, so I waited. Maybe that was silly, as the job might never have opened up, but I had my heart set on JPL and decided to wait a bit longer. December passed with no word. Around January 15th, I checked in and got a call from a new HR person who would be handling things and asked about my salary requirements. I told him, and he said that was too high, even though I'd discussed this before without issue. I explained I'd been waiting almost seven months, and my requirements were reasonable for the industry and my experience. After some discussion, he agreed but made it seem like a big favor. He then asked if I wanted the job and if I could start in two weeks. After nearly seven months of back and forth, needing time to give notice at my current job and get organized felt impossible. I wasn't relocating, so getting there in two weeks was feasible, but it seemed unreasonable given the drawn-out process. I finally agreed to three weeks, finished my last day on a Friday, and started orientation at JPL the following Monday. For how slow they can be, they sure were in a rush to get me started. Now that I've worked at JPL, I can see why things take so long. Things move pretty slowly here, and the interview process was a preview of how work gets done at the Lab. If I had been actively interviewing elsewhere, I couldn't have joined JPL because of how long this process took. That's a shame. I think JPL misses out on great talent regularly because of this slow hiring, and I can't blame someone for taking another sure thing when JPL is so uncertain. Still, getting that offer letter after such a long wait and being able to tell friends, 'Yeah, I'm going to NASA,' is pretty awesome.

So, some engineers came to my school for 2 days to interview people. I had this screening interview on campus that was like 45 minutes. The person interviewing me asked me to talk more about projects on my resume and then asked some behavioral questions like "Tell me about yourself" and "Describe a time you had an altercation with a teammate and how'd you handle it." About two weeks later, they asked me to fly out to Pasadena for an on-site. In the morning, HR gave a presentation about the hiring process and benefits. Then I had three 1-on-1 interviews with managers and supervisors, each lasting 30-45 minutes. After that, I gave a one-hour presentation on a project. Then I had lunch with some employees and went on a tour. I finished with four more 1-on-1 interviews. It was a really nice process. The on-site interviews were pretty similar to the screening, mostly behavioral questions and resume stuff. They also talked a lot about what their group does. Everyone was really friendly.

So first I went through the schools career office for an initial chat. Then, a few weeks later, they set up an on-site. The day itself was pretty packed: it started with a panel interview that lasted about 30 minutes. After that, I had to give a technical presentation, which was about an hour long and included questions. Then, there was a one-on-one interview for an hour. Following that, we had lunch, took a tour, and then I had five more one-on-one interviews, each about 30 minutes. They were really great, honestly, they spent more time explaining their work than asking about mine.