Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Interview Questions
& Process

I would not recommend this interview process to anyone. I was asked to a formal interview three weeks after my initial interview. Both were virtual. The formal interview was 3.5 hours long, which included a presentation. I waited 9 weeks for them to notify me of their decision. Within that 9-week period, I followed up with the hiring manager a couple of times to request an update on my status. Their rejection email neither provided feedback on my performance as a candidate, nor did it explain why it took them so long to make a decision. The job market is already stressful for applicants. It is inexcusable to string your candidates along like this, especially when they have invested hours into your recruitment process. It simply should not take 9 weeks to select a candidate after they've gone through their final rounds of interviews. This process is something I might expect for a senior-level management position, not a masters-level research associate position. Because of this experience with PNNL, I will never apply to a position with them again. If you value your time and want to feel respected as a candidate, I suggest you apply elsewhere.

Applied online. About two weeks later, got an email to set up a 30-minute screening with two scientists. After scheduling, another email came with two documents to complete for a more detailed screening. The screening interview itself was pretty standard, asking about my PhD work, what research I'm interested in, and my reasons for applying. One scientist was late by about 15 minutes and seemed uninterested and bored from the get-go. The interview ran for about 50 minutes. I felt I answered all the questions well and demonstrated my skills, but I never heard back, even after sending a polite follow-up. I think I was ghosted, which I find quite unprofessional. This is the only company where I've had such a bad experience, with an uninterested interviewer and ghosting from HR.

Submitted application online. Got back to me within 2 weeks. It was a panel interview, originally scheduled for around 30 minutes. Was mostly behavioral questions getting to know you, your work ethic, your interests. What you would you do in certain situations. I think the most important thing from my perspective is knowing yourself. and being able to confidently articulate it. Be able to articulate your thoughts in a way that is concise enough to get your point across (So you are not rambling). Very very nice people.

I applied online and then got an email to set up an interview pretty fast. The first interview was a video chat with the manager and the lead technician for the location. About a month after the first interview, I reached out to the manager, and she apologized for the delay and then set up an onsite interview. They asked me to prepare a 45-minute presentation about something "they could implement in their organization". After I gave the presentation, I spent an hour and a half answering questions from a panel, and these questions seemed to come straight from the first Google search results for "What should I ask the interviewee in an interview?". I'm not sure what they got out of those questions. The final part was a chat with HR, where they told me it was an entry-level position, which was surprising given my 25 years of experience. So, lesson learned for me. I never heard back from the manager or HR after the second interview, even when I tried to contact them. I'm still confused about how a company like PNNL could operate this way. Since it was a new role, my guess is they were just exploring potential candidates. Also, unfortunately, it felt like they were gathering other people's intellectual property for their own benefit.