I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Applied Materials in Mar 2022
Interview
This is my first time interviewing with Applied Materials. Applied through LinkedIn and AMAT career site.
1st round - Phone interview with HR (about 1 week after I applied for the position).
2nd round - Online interview using Microsoft Teams (about 1 week after phone interview).
- Took half a day off for the online interview but the hiring manager unfortunately couldn't show up that day (unknown reason). 5 other team members participated in the online interview and they also seemed not to know the whereabouts of their team leader (i.e., the hiring manager), and kept promising that the hiring manager would show up "later" (which never happened).
- The 5 team members that participated in the interview only introduced their names, and not one of them turned on their camera(s) for the online interview. They also didn't bother explaining why they didn't/couldn't turn on their cameras. I just have to learn to cope with 5 black screens (yes, they didn't even bother putting up a photo) and try my best imagining what these people look like based on their voices.
- A lot of silence during the online interview because the team members were just now busy looking into my résumé (or busy looking at other stuff, I couldn't tell because they didn't have their cameras on)
- Asked a lot of questions regarding my previous job. Wanted to know what parameters my previous company used for a product, which I couldn't disclose in detail. In the end, they said I could do better for the interview if I could share the parameters and how I tuned them. (I did share how I tuned the parameters, but they didn't seem focused/interested enough to hear/understand it)
- The online interview took more than 1 hour. Sent a thank you note to HR shortly after the interview for her to deliver to the team members. Received rejection (no surprise) 1 week after the online interview.
Overall, I would say this was not a comfortable experience (did not feel respected) and felt like a waste of time for both parties.
Accepted offer from another company which treated their candidate with respect shortly afterwards.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Introduce yourself
Why did you apply for this position
What does this position do
Lots of questions regarding previous job
Some questions regarding thesis
How do you define success
Plausibility of a semiconductor structure
First round—jod description explanation follwed by some behavioral questions. Then a couple of technical question, not in detail, just superficial ones.
Second round - very technical with in-depth questioning on process development and techniques.
PhD work summary and instruments skill set check knowledge and some case questions and intern experience and behavior questions about how to work as teams and how to commute with colleagues and some random questions
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Applied Materials (Santa Clara, CA)
Interview
The hiring process first involves a questionnaire that you need to fill in. This interview was for an entry-level role. You would generally have 3 rounds of interviews: HR Screen, Hiring manager, and next could be with the director.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I found the interviewers were very kind, made me feel comfortable. They questioned a lot on my resume, my approach towards finding solutions.