Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Interview Questions
& Process

So, first there was like this HR call, you know, to kick things off. Then, we had a 60-minute technical interview, pretty standard. The final part was the on-site, which was actually split into two sections. The first on-site bit was about 1.5 hours total, with a 30-minute presentation and then an hour of questions, which got pretty technical. After that, there was a 1-hour behavioral part. Overall, it was a good experience, and the people were nice.

The interview experience was highly unprofessional. They contacted me on holidays attempting to advance their interview schedule. Despite my son being in the hospital, they refused to reschedule, stating they were eager to start the new year. The interviewer, with a rude tone and extreme unprofessionalism, responded to a layered question by saying 'let me give you feedback' because my answer was unfocused. Their body language was terrible, with constant glares and smirks. They even used my own statements against me, like when I mentioned delegating roles, they retorted 'oh we have a small team so you won't have the opportunity to delegate'. It was the worst and most unprofessional interview process I've ever been through.

I got picked for a phone screening for a Software Engineering position at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. It was a quick 30-minute call with HR, mainly asking behavioral questions. They threw in a couple of technical questions too, about basic OOP and Agile stuff. The interview felt easy and I thought it went well. They said I'd hear back in five business days, but after six with no word, I shot them an email asking for an update. They never even replied. Finally, 15 business days post-interview, I got a rejection notice. The slow communication was a bummer, it would've been way more professional to give an update on time or at least respond to follow-ups instead of leaving people hanging.

So I interviewed at SEL in Pullman, and it was way different from what my friends who work there said they experienced. First up was a Zoom interview with about 15 minutes of HR stuff, then a 30-45 minute technical interview with someone from the team. Then I got moved to the second stage, which was ANOTHER technical interview, but this time it was in person and I had to do whiteboard work in front of the whole team. It was pretty stressful, made worse because the team lead asking questions could barely speak English, which caused a lot of confusion. Usually SEL has like 1-3 interviews, typically a quick HR call, then an in-person technical interview, and then maybe an intro to the team if you get the job. But nope, I had two technical interviews. They even asked me to stay longer for more questions in the second interview, and I did because I thought it was a good sign. They said they want to see how you approach problems and are usually pretty forgiving and happy to help you learn on the job, even if you're not always right. But honestly, I'm not sure that was the case for this position. There wasn't even a job description on the application page, at least not for this role. The job was listed under R&D, but the team told me they mostly do lower-level tasks, which was pretty misleading compared to the job page. They listed 'power engineering' as a preferred qualification, but they focused mainly on system networking and communications, which has nothing to do with hardware, power, or circuit design. Anyway, I never heard back from SEL after the interview. They completely ghosted me, even after I emailed them a month later. It's super unprofessional to get someone excited about a potential career and then just vanish. At least send a rejection email, you know? Total scumbag move.