Electro Scientific Industries Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Jul 2008 in Austin, TX (took 2 weeks)

Interview was with the guy to be replaced as he was to move to regional manager and his U.S. service manager. The interview was normal until the guy pulled out a multipage schematic (more of a block diagram of an ESI system) and asked me to describe my approach to troubleshooting a potential problem with a user interface monitor. The problem for me was the font type was tiny and I needed a magnifying glass to read. At first I thought there was insufficient information and they wanted to see how I reacted to an impossible task but after several minutes I finally was barely able to read the monitor label. At that point the interview was over in their minds and I just wanted to get out of there. As it ended up it was providential as they told me a week later I was no longer a candidate but because of the company's newly discovered financial condition they would not be hiring anybody for a few more months. Obviously, job security as a relatively new employee would be an issue because the "replaced guy" would always be able to move back to the FSE position from regional manager as the company's financial climate changed. Another test that I seemed to answer well was pictures of wafer features and asking for diagnosis based on the visible feature distortion in the pictures. Everything else in the interview process was normal.