Bettis Laboratory Mechanical Engineer Interview

Interview Details – I first applied online through their website and had to wait about a month and a half before hearing back. They first wanted to do a phone screening before bringing candidates in for a face to face interview. Questions were typical interview questions such as, where did you go to school, when did you graduate, describe school projects ect. The phone interview took about a half hour. It took them between 2 and 3 weeks before calling selected candidates down to Pittsburgh for a face to face interview. However this interview was not conducted at Bettis, but at a Holiday Inn Express nearby the lab.

They brought in about 50 candidates interviewing for different positions at Bettis. The first group consisted of about 30 people, the next day, an additional 15 who were not scheduled for the first day came in. Candidates were given an option to come in Tuesday and spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express before the interview on Wednesday (Hotel room paid for by Bettis). The interview process began at 7:45 Wednesday morning. Everyone was given a presentation about the company and a personal schedule on who you were to meet with. Before interviewing with recruiters, fingerprints were taken as well as other information.

I interviewed with 2 recruiters separately, each for 1 hour. The recruiters had their own hotel room to do the interviews in, so we had to go to different rooms depending on what job we were there for. Half of the 1:1 interview time consisted of the recruiter explaining more information about the company and what work they did at Bettis. Interview questions were pretty easy like the phone interview. Some examples were, are you willing to relocate, describe your school projects, do you work well in teams, ect. After the interviews were finished, everyone was invited to lunch at the hotel. The whole event lasted until 12:45. Those who did not want to stay for lunch were able to leave at 11:45.

Overall the event was well organized and everyone stayed on schedule. It was a good experience and the hotel interview event was a good idea.