Occidental Petroleum Mechanical Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process really emphasizes personal skills over technical ones, with no actual technical questions asked. It's more of a basic interview covering things like challenges you've faced and how you handled them, and dealing with difficult people. They stress the importance of safety and teamwork, viewing OXY as a family and wanting to ensure new hires are assets rather than liabilities.

I applied through the campus job site and got an interview. I didn't know much about the company, but they had an info dinner at a nice restaurant. The recruiters were pretty young, graduated in the last 5 years. The next day, I had my interview with two recruiters who I'd met the night before. It was pretty chill. They just went through my resume and asked about my experience. They asked behavioral questions based on what I said, like what I did when I got stuck on a project and how I prioritized tasks for big projects. The job was for an oil and gas drilling role in California. I had no oil/gas experience, but they said they'd train me. They called back in two days, impressed with my skills (I only had one 3-month internship), and said HR would contact me about a second 'on site' interview in California.

I applied online and through my university's career center. They set up an interview for me before the Job Fair, which I attended even though I had already scheduled it. I also went to an info session where they tracked attendance. The interview itself was pretty straightforward, mostly focusing on my resume and past experiences. The interviewers were really friendly and engaging, balancing casual small talk with the more in-depth questions. After the interview, I was invited to a dinner with the recruiters. Exactly one week after the interview, I got a call from HR with an offer. I had mentioned during the interview that I had other offers with approaching deadlines.