I met the hiring manager for Buildings and Structures group at the LA office and after a tour and some chatting we went out to lunch. Conversations continued but the feel remained casual. The hiring manager explained how the company is structured and how the first few years of the company usually work. The manager was very straight forward and honest. There was nothing difficult about this meeting - simply clarifying that the job available was something I was interested in pursuing. The next day, I had a full interview in the Menlo Park office. It was from about 9am-5pm and included 1-1 meetings with prospective co-workers in the division, mostly in their office - but there were also two phone calls to talk to those in other offices. Although more serious, these meetings were generally pleasant. They all had a small problem for me which they presented at the end and was directly to related to a project they worked on at the company. They were very interested in my approach and initial thoughts on a solution strategy and I didn't feel that I would be penalized for potential mistakes - anyway, the questions were a bit open-ended by nature. It seemed each employee would do their own personal evaluation of me and vote on whether or not I would be a good fit. I enjoyed these meetings. In the middle of the day there was a presentation about 45 min long. I was a bit nervous but the staff was genuinely interested and asked quite a few questions during the presentation (at the beginning of my presentation I encouraged people to interrupt me to make clarifications). There were a few people who connected to my talk remotely, including the Principal Engineer and Practice Director, who actually asked me a question at the end of my presentation. After my presentation I went out to lunch with the Menlo Park office staff and it was casual again - it felt like we were all taking a break from the interview. After lunch, the 1-1 meetings continued until the end of the day. All my travel expenses were covered or reimbursed. I was offered $90,000 for the LA position which seemed a bit low. I declined it for personal reasons.

I completed three rounds of interviews — two remote video calls, first with a senior scientist and then with a managing scientist — and was subsequently invited for an onsite interview. Unfortunately, the organization of the onsite visit did not align with my expectations. Less than 24 hours before the interview, the schedule reshuffled, and the meeting was set in Natick during a January snowstorm, With a high risk of travel difficulties. In practice almost all of my conversations still were virtual, despite the travel. What added to the confusion was that the onsite location was neither the office I had applied to nor one where the team is primarily based. Even my host and another scientist had to travel from neighboring states to meet there, which made the arrangement feel inefficient. The HR interview was surprisingly strange. I was asked to discuss technical aspects of my research — essentially giving a brief technical overview — and to repeat information that was already included in my application. Although it mentioned that they already had all the info from my initial application form! many of the same questions were asked again. This interview felt unusual, as HR interviews are typically focused on administrative or cultural fit rather than technical evaluation