Rocket Lab Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I had an initial chat with the hiring manager, who is an Engineering Manager. It was mostly a 'tell me about yourself' type of thing and asking what I knew about Rocket Lab. They mentioned I'd hear back about the second round within a week, but that never happened, sadly.

I had a quick call with a manager and sent my resume/cover letter online. Then, another manager reached out about a similar role and we set up a Skype interview. Both managers were great, and I was surprised to talk to one directly at first instead of going through HR. The Skype interview was nice, but I got some concerning vibes. They gave canned answers when I asked about problems I'd heard about or seen online, and seemed really focused on whether I could handle a lot of firefighting. (Honestly, I'd just spent the morning putting out a fire so I could make the interview, so I might have sounded a bit skeptical.) I felt like things were more chaotic than they let on, but they seemed to be looking for someone who could handle it, so it was generally a good experience. I thought about sending a note in case it was just bad interviewing, but I couldn't word it without sounding like a sore loser, so I decided against it.

It was a pretty straightforward interview, no nonsense, just chatting with regular people to make sure I was qualified. It was enjoyable, but they were definitely checking if I knew my stuff, so it was challenging.