Westinghouse Principal Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

first there was an interview with the hiring manager where we went over my background and general questions, and then they asked about my experience with background research. after that, I had a technical interview with two other engineers where we dove deeper into my background research experience. the final part was the onsite, which included a tour and an interview where they asked me behavioral questions and questions about leading a project.

It was in a conference room with the hiring manager, HR, and an experienced engineer. They asked about my experience and past situations. They gave me a bank of questions and wanted to see what the situation was, what my solution path was, and how I accomplished it. We discussed preferred managerial styles and the software and analysis capabilities I have. The panel was interested in whether I had done any calculations or design based on various codes.

I went through two interviews: a phone chat and then an in-person group one. The phone interview was with the hiring manager and one of his team members, and it felt pretty standard and went fine. The in-person interview was with the recruiter, the hiring manager, and another team member. Honestly, that one was a bit of a mess. After we left the lobby, the recruiter actually got lost trying to find the conference room and we had to ask someone for directions. We ended up being about 10 minutes late, which makes me wonder if the hiring manager thought less of me because of it. It was also weird having the recruiter in on the group interview; usually, HR handles the first call, the hiring manager interviews, and then HR is back for the offer. I didn't see what the recruiter could add to the interview itself. If that's how Westinghouse normally does things, it's a bit of a broken process. The recruiter also seemed confused, acting like we'd already talked on the phone when it was a different recruiter I'd spoken with. Plus, it looked like the interviewers hadn't really prepared at all, openly discussing amongst themselves how they should run the interview and what questions to ask, which felt super unprofessional. The actual Q&A part wasn't too bad, though. In the end, I didn't get the job. To make things worse, I'm still waiting for reimbursement for my travel expenses weeks later. The office environment didn't impress me either, just lots of cubicles. From my experience and what I've read, it feels like Westinghouse isn't what it used to be, and maybe ownership changes aren't helping. They might do better in the future with nuclear power prospects, but the company is really just a shell of its former self.