Rincon Research Corporation Interview Questions
& Process

So the interview process is split into three main stages. First, they look at your resume and cover letter to see if you're a good fit. Then, there's a 30-60 minute phone call where we mainly talk about your past work and experiences that are relevant to the job. This call is pretty technical, focusing on your experience with projects and responsibilities, especially with things like Geolocation algorithms that RINCON is developing. Finally, if you pass that, it's a full day (9 am to 4 pm) in-person interview at their headquarters in Tucson, AZ.

So, there were three main parts to the interview. First up was a casual chat on the phone to see if I was interested and to clear up some stuff about my background. After that, they sent over a coding challenge by email. The last part was the on-site, which was a pretty long day, like six hours. They kicked it off with some info about the company – benefits, what they do, how they're structured. Then, it was mostly technical interviews for the rest of the time. Oh, and they threw in a sponsored lunch in the middle.

I sent in my resume online and then got a phone screening. After that, I was invited for an onsite interview which consisted of about 8 interviews, each lasting 30 minutes, plus an hour-long lunch interview. They asked a variety of technical questions, covering both programming and systems topics. It seemed like they were often assessing my problem-solving abilities. I felt I performed well and was expecting an offer, but a week later, HR informed me I wouldn't be receiving one. I reached out to one of the engineers I spoke with, and he explained that while I was technically skilled and showed I could work through problems and learn quickly, they were seeking someone with more direct experience who could start contributing immediately. I appreciated his call and still consider Rincon a company I'd like to work for in the future once I gain more experience.

The interview process at Rincon Research was quite rigorous. After submitting my application online, I had a phone interview that lasted about an hour. At the conclusion of this call, I was asked to write C code to perform a correlation of two arrays, which I then emailed back. If successful, the next step is an all-day onsite interview, which I was told involves meeting with six different engineers and two HR representatives. Lunch is provided during this time. The onsite interview itself spanned from 8 AM to 3:30 PM, including a one-hour lunch break. The interview questions primarily focused on my resume, essentially asking me to elaborate on the experiences listed and demonstrate a deep understanding of the claimed expertise. They also posed several short, non-engineering questions designed to gauge my quick thinking. For these trickier questions, it was suggested to research Google interview questions and answers, as it seemed the interviewers had access to such resources. I encountered one high-level manager who was rather impolite, attempting to downplay my past accomplishments detailed on my resume. During lunch, a younger engineer repeatedly asked similar questions, which I found a bit irritating and confusing, possibly as part of a behavioral assessment. The interviewers continued to engage with questions even during the lunch period, making it less of a typical break. Some of my friends who currently work at Rincon mentioned it's an acceptable workplace, though not exceptional, depending on career goals. They do offer unusual benefits, like all overtime counting towards time off, which can accumulate to several months of leave. Other engineers I interviewed with were pleasant and appeared intelligent.