Garmin Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – A job database sent an email suggesting the job as a good fit. Despite having written to Garmin in the past (and hearing nothing in reply), I sent in a resume expecting to hear nothing back. I did get a call and the folks I spoke to over several calls seemed pleasant. I went out for an interview in Feb 2013.

The interview questions were largely technical, about database search algorithms that I'm not familiar with and specifics of the implementation of the standard C compilers. The tools I use every day are specific to other weird processors and the managers I interviewed with didn't seem to care that I don't use the same tools they do.

One interview was with the fellow who runs the innovation group. In preparation for meeting with him, I had jotted down several ideas that I thought would be reasonable enhancements to Garmin's line - some handheld, some automotive and some marine improvements. I filed Provisional Patent Applications (PPA) on them before traveling. That conversation went well, or so I thought.

The flight back was cancelled due to weather problems on the east coast. Shortly after getting back, I heard that I had been denied a job I hadn't applied for. Then I heard about the one I did apply for. Also no.

Garmin agreed to pay the extra expenses and it's now May and I still haven't seen a check.

I have since licensed two of the design suggestions to Garmin's competitors and I'll be curious to see whether Garmin "thinks of them on their own" or not.

The biggest concern I had was Garmin's managers jokingly referring to themselves as a "cult". It seemed rather cultish when I toured and it was disturbing to hear comments about the "cult" or "you never have to leave the building" and "you'll like our family better than your own". I knew during the tour & interview that I couldn't work there, so being turned down wasn't a problem for me.

Interview Details – Very professional and timely. Initial phone screen, follow up conversation, face to face at corporate HR - all arrangement made and either direct billed or reimbursed. Detailed interview schedule shared. Very nice and again professional. Was told to expect feedback and updates in 2 weeks as of May 5 it will be 8 weeks and not a peep.

Interview Details – One phone interview with HR. This was basic resume questions/tell me about yourself. About a week later was a technical interview via Skype.

Interview Details – Waited about 1 week to get contacted by HR after sending in the resume. The procedure then is pretty standard, started with HR phone screening, followed by technical phone interview, and finally in-person interview.
The HR phone screening already asked some behavioral questions. The technical phone interview consists of OOP and C++ memory management questions. The on-site requires the applicant to solving a programming problem in OOP, then discussed some programming language keyword usage, and finally ended with a brain teasing question.
In overall, the HR is very effective and responsive.

Interview Details – It's about a two hour interview. You get a combination of technical and behavioral questions. There is a half hour programming exercise which you then review with the interviewer. After that you're given a brain teaser question.

Interview Details – Had a phone screen interview. Was essentially just a resume overview with description about the job.

Interview Details – Started with a small interview with HR recruiter on phone(mostly behavioral questions) and then she arranged an interview for the technical round. Questions were fairly basic and went for 45 minutes. Next day interview was scheduled with the IT Manager and she too asked behavioral questions too. Then they invited me to their campus for an interview where again they asked me behavioral questions.

Interview Details – Standard Procedure- a phone interview with HR recruiter followed by an on-site interview.On site interview was purely technical which asked basic questions of electrical engineering(combinational logic,op-amps and rlc circuits).I was also asked to explain a project I am working on in as much detail as possible.

Interview Details – The first phone interview was a simple screening and gave me a chance to establish some expectations regarding the job and compensation.
The second phone interview was with the would-be manager. He is very knowledgeable and asked decent questions that allowed me to demonstrate my knowledge of software programming.
The final interview was on-site with the manager and another developer. They showed me to a room, gave me a set of programming objectives, and sat me down in front of a laptop. This is probably the best and most effective way to demonstrate me knowledge of programming. I was comfortable the entire time and really enjoyed the task they gave me. Roughly after half an hour they came back in and put my code up on a projector where we then proceeded to discuss what i had concocted. We discussed my design pattern and the finer details like initialization list, constants, threads and memory management.

Overall it was a very positive process and the team there must be a talented bunch. The technical recruiter is also very responsive and made the whole thing run smoothly.

Reason for Declining – Accepted a competing offer. Pay was slightly below market.