Hiring Manager sent an email asking my availability. Job description was for configuring CAD tools according to requirements. He went over my resume, especially projects related to VLSI. He wanted to know if I was familiar with the whole process flow of design. Was also interested in knowing my knowledge of fabrication and asked questions based on how to reduce capacitance in interconnects (use a dielectric with low relative permittivity). Also asked a simple algorithmic question related to an IF condition. Anyway, he staged another two rounds of interview over call, this time with his team for them to assess. The first group asked questions about basics of circuit design, like what are the advantages of using CMOS design and the necessity of both NMOS and PMOS. They also ventured to ask what parallel computing is all about (since that's on my resume). Asked me how I could use MPI to optimize Cadence (weird?). Asked if I minded doing a more software based job. The next team asked more relevant questions. Question on what will be the delay if there is a resistance and a capacitance at the output of an inverter. Also a question on body biasing. Asked if I knew PERL scripting. Asked if I knew SKILL (apparently that's the language they use to optimize their CAD tools). Asked how I would go about implementing a design process (schematic, simulation, floorplanning, layout etc.). Asked if I knew UNIX (basics). Asked what is grep for.