Process started with a one hour phone screening with the hiring manager.
I would say it was medium difficulty, with a mix of behavioral and technical questions.
I was then brought onsite for an interview.
The interview lasted for about 6 hours with a rotating panel of different interviewers.
It also included a lunch, where I was interviewed during the lunch.
After my interview, I heard no response for about 2 weeks, and assumed there was not going to be an offer.
My thoughts following the interview:
In general, I don't understand why any engineer would work here.
This was the most difficult interview I've had, and it seemed completely unnecessary.
The interviewers' questions, for the most part, repeated themselves over and over.
I feel that an understanding of my skill set could have been achieved with a 2 or 3 hour interview.
Furthermore, I was interviewed over lunch by two engineers, which was unnecessary and felt unnatural.
Perhaps if you are interviewing for a job at a top-tier company this would make more sense,
but from what I gathered during the interview, this was a pretty mediocre company.
Their products are well known in embedded software circles, but the company itself seemed to not take care of its employees.
Typically the headquarters office attempts to show off the company, but at Microchip it was a pretty bland setting. It seemed that the office hasn't been updated since the 90's.
The benefits package they presented seemed average.
From what I gather, the salary is far below average for the Phoenix area.
The interviewers were proud to say how well the company was doing financially,
and it makes sense why - they are very frugal. I suppose this is a good thing but maybe they are too stingy.
To be fair, the job itself seemed interesting, but the cons outweighed the pros here.
After all this effort interviewing here, I still haven't received a yes or no from Microchip.
This seemed a bit unprofessional or disorganized on their part.
I'm not too concerned with receiving something from them, I don't think I would accept if I was given the opportunity.
Overall, it was strange to see how many high quality engineers chose to work here.
Everyone I talked to was very friendly and helpful, while still very technically skilled.
However, I couldn't understand what they were getting out of working at Microchip.
The benefits are average, the office is old, and the pay is horrible.
If you go down the road a few blocks you can work at a number of other company and do basically the same work for far more pay and benefits.
