Space Dynamics Laboratory Interview Questions
& Process

It started with an online prescreening interview over Teams, where the interviewer asked basic questions about my experience related to the job description items. This prescreening interview was recorded. Next, there was an in-person interview where I had to give a 1-hour presentation to 6 people, some of whom were remote. I felt unprepared for the presentation because the job description was vague and didn't match the company's website. The interview wasn't technically difficult, and there were no behavioral questions, but the job description was misleading about the actual role. During the interview, they mentioned a significant difficulty they were facing, but didn't explain it or provide details, and then asked me how I would solve it. When I requested more information about the problem, they offered very little guidance. The whole interview felt strange. The job description listed many software tools, most of which weren't actually needed for the role. It was very misleading, and ultimately a waste of my time. After the interview, we had lunch. I won't apply to this lab again.

I submitted my resume at a university career fair. They interviewed me right there and said they'd reach out if they were interested. Later, they called to invite me to their campus for more interviews. They told me to bring my own laptop for some live coding and gave me the details. When I got there, they asked me some questions, and then immediately said they wanted to make an offer. We toured the campus, and I left. Months later, the offer was finalized, and I accepted it after trying to negotiate it a bit. Honestly, there weren't as many technical questions as I expected coming out of college.

The interview was a joke. The interviewers were late, and people kept walking in and out of the room while I was giving my bio. The interview head didn't show up until the very end. I was then gaslit with promises about working in an area that would benefit my career. After I turned down another offer and joined SDL, I ended up doing menial work. When I asked about the work from the job posting, they essentially said 'sucks to be you.' In California, these types of false promises are illegal.

The application/interview process at SDL starts with a video interview as part of the application submission. Your answers are recorded for the hiring team to review before they select candidates for an initial round of interviews. The first interview was with a panel of people: the department lead, an HR representative, a program manager, a project manager, and an optical engineer.