Palo Alto Research Center Interview Questions
& Process

A recruiter from Xerox reached out on LinkedIn and I also applied online. The whole thing took about 3 weeks. First, I talked to HR, then a team member gave me a call. After that, I had to do a 2-hour online test with engineering and logic stuff. Then I interviewed with the hiring manager. After that, I had 6 more interviews, one-on-one over Teams because of COVID, with the rest of the team. They said they were looking for someone with more experience in the end.

I had one interview with a Principal Engineer and then another with the group manager. After that, I got an online take-home assignment. Then there were 6 more interviews with different people in the group and some directors. This whole thing took forever and left a bad impression. Interviewing so many people felt like a waste of time for everyone. The HR person told me after the take-home and the meeting with the senior manager and group manager that the offer was basically mine. But then out of nowhere, I was scheduled for a full day of interviews with people from department directors to senior scientists. The interviewers were nice and interesting, but honestly, those 6 one-on-one interviews felt like they were just trying to stall. Because after all that, it took them two weeks to give me feedback and then they didn't even give me an offer.

The interview process was alright - it started with a phone screen, and then they scheduled an on site interview. The on site took about 2 hours. The interviewers were great, but I never heard back from the recruiter (even after a follow up email). As a job seeker, this is so frustrating to be ghosted by a company. Just let us know we’re not being considered. I found a role with another company that pays much better, but still very annoying, as the process of writing a cover letter, and applying, interviews multiple times is a good amount of work. They obviously don’t respect the candidates they don’t choose if they can’t even bother to follow up.

I applied online in November. About 2.5 months later, I got an email for a phone interview. Then, I had a second round interview 3 weeks after the first one. Both interviewers were really smart, friendly, knowledgeable, and passionate about research. The email communication was also very smooth.