I was contacted by HR in mid-October to come to their Career Invitational. All travel, food, lodging were paid for by Raytheon, and overall it was a very nice event. We had a "meet and greet" with managers on the first night, followed by a series of 1-on-1 interviews the next day. There were about 60 candidates at the event (out of 1000s who applied) so it seemed very competitive. The interviews were easy-mostly questions about group projects and about my resume. HR made a big deal out of telling us that we'd hear from them either way within a month, but it's been 3 weeks and I've heard nothing...so I'm thinking I probably won't be getting an offer.

As with so many jobs, inside connections are the make-or-break. While I was hired strictly because of what I knew, I was interviewed because of who I knew (or actually who knew me and asked his boss to recruit me). Interview was refreshingly open and frank. Manger was initially reluctant to hire me due to age (at ~40 I would become the "baby" in the group) but put aside his biases and discovered what I truly had to offer his team.