Garmin Interview Questions & Reviews in Kansas City, MO Area
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Updated Jan 14, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 34 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 34 ratings
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| 1–10 of 34 Garmin Interviews | Sort by |
Software Engineer at Garmin
Posted Jan 14, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Kansas City, MO (took a day)
I had three interviews with Garmin for three different positions in the company. Each interview consisted of questions asking me what I was looking for in a company, a set of technical questions (what is a pointer, etc.), and a software engineering puzzle I had to solve. Know your general terminology and be good at solving puzzles and you'll be set.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test.
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Helpful Interview?
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No
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Software Engineer at Garmin
Posted Nov 29, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 in Overland Park, KS (took 1+ week)
The phone interview was basically by HR. She asked me the basic HR questions. Got an email inviting for an onsite interview. They took care of all the accommodation. The same HR asked the same questions once again and if there was a change in compensation requirements. Later it was a group interview where 2 team leads interviewed me with basic C questions.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
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Cartography Tech at Garmin
Posted Nov 2, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2010 in Olathe, KS (took a day)
Phone interview, followed by on-site interview. Process lasted around 5 hours consisting of presenting software, applying software to data, and panel interview at the end.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
No negotiating... Period.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Drug Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
View Comments (2)
Inappropriate?
Software Engineer at Garmin
Posted Aug 17, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Jul 2011 in Olathe, KS (took 3 weeks)
To start off, I am a fresh college graduate (B.S.) in computer science and this was my first corporate interview ever. I simply applied on their website and was contacted in about a week.
I received a call from HR to kick off the process. It was about 1 hour long and mostly non-technical. A few simple technical questions like 'What is function overloading? overriding? What is a semaphore?', etc. but that was it. The usual questions were more like 'Describe your resume experiences. What is your favorite programming language?' etc. After that I was contacted in a few business days (less than a week) for an on site interview scheduled for 2 weeks later. They flew me in and paid for the rental car and hotel. The on site interview was actually a mini-interview to start, 4 1-hour interviews, and a free lunch intermission tour of the campus and offices. The mini-interview was just a recap of the previous HR interview with an HR representative. Then I had a 1:1 interview where I was asked to solve a problem with the interviewer. Given a general Image View that can zoom, pan, scroll, etc. write an algorithm that can determine the absolute image coordinates of a user click even if they have zoomed in and/or scrolled. It was an interesting problem and I had a semi-working solution by the time the interview was over. Then I had a panel interview with 1 project manager and 2 team leaders. This was more laid back. We talked about the research I did in college and my opinions about different programming languages. The third interview was 1:1 and it was half technical. First I talked about major projects and challenges I had worked on and then the second half was rapid fire questions about C and a little object oriented stuff. Questions like: 'Write a routine to do an in order traversal of a binary tree (then do it without recursion). How would you set only 1 bit in a 32 bit value. What is the difference between big and little endian? Here are some common data structures, where would you normally see them and why? Explain negative runtime impacts caused by inheritance.' Then there was a free lunch tour with a regular employee. After that was my last 1:1 interview. There was a quick discussion and then all technical questions. I had teaching assistant experience on my resume and the interviewer asked me to teach him what a semaphore was. Then he showed me some C code and asked me what was wrong with it. Then finally he gave me a problem to solve in less than 10 minutes. The problem was to shuffle a deck of cards. I barely got a solution down that I explained while I was writing it. He was happy that I even finished a solution even though it was hideously inefficient. He was the only interviewer to ask me to see the self coding example that I was told to bring.
The interviewers were all pleasant and willing to work with me when I stumbled through some of the questions. There were a few tricky ones that I definitely was not able to answer right off the top of my head. One last note for what it's worth, all of my interviewers were white males with an average age probably in the mid to late twenties though there were a couple in their late thirties for sure. Overall the interviews were pretty simple and not very stressful.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
I tried to negotiate a higher starting salary and they were not very receptive to it at all. I was ignored for about a week and when I was finally contacted (after leaving a few messages to different people) I was simply told that they wanted to keep a consistent hiring salary and that none of my team leaders wanted to compromise on that. That said, I did receive a higher salary offer than I expected and I am happy with it.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Skills Test and a Drug Test.
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Helpful Interview?
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Business Development Manager at Garmin
Posted Jul 2, 2011 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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1.0
Very Easy Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2010 in Olathe, KS (took 2 weeks)
The job description was very vague, but my internal contact had told about the position and I applied.
The recruiter was very guarded on her comments, but it was easy to read that she wanted to underpromise and over deliver. After the telephone interview, she called within the hour to schedule flights for 1:1 interview.
The 1:1 interview was pretty straightforward. I was well prepared with lots of case studies from McKinsey, Bain; work place examples etc which are typical for such positions, but the interviewers (HR, Director and colleague) asked the same questions - which were all behavioral. It appeared that they were scripted. There were no technical questions or questions about the in depth knowledge required for the job. I knew I had aced the intreview and the next morning, I had the offer letter in hand.
Interview Questions
1. Tell me about yourself
2. What did you like/dislike about your previous job?
3. Tell me about your management style.
Negotiation Details
Garmin doesnt pay well and this was the background that was created before I interviewed. So I wasnt expecting much. The offer was slightly less than my expectations, but they made it up by offering a sign-on bonus. Relocation was mediocre. I did not negotiate hard but was able to squeeze a nominal amount above the offer. Overall, recruiter was very professional and responsive.
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Product Support Specialist at Garmin
Posted Jun 28, 2011
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Aug 2009 in Olathe, KS (took 1 week)
Applied and it probably took about a week or two to hear anything back. Finally I was asked to come in for an interview. Interviewed with HR rep and a supervisor. Was called back the next day for the job offer. Then I had to do a drug test and I believe a background check as well.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Drug Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Applications Developer at Garmin
Posted Jun 8, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2009 in Olathe, KS (took a day)
just one back ground interview and two technical interviews.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
They don't give you any negotiation chance.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Embedded Test Software Engineer at Garmin
Posted Feb 26, 2011
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2011 in Olathe, KS (took a day)
I applied for this position in January 2011 through the Garmin website, and initially did not receive a reply. I was however contacted by a Garmin HR recruiter who had noticed my profile on LinkedIn. After a phone interview with HR, I was invited for an on-site interview in February. I was met in the lobby at 8:00 a.m. and escorted a small conference room near the main entrance. From 8 am to noon, I was interviewed hourly by a representative, or pair of representatives, of various teams within the company. I was given two C/C++ tests, which were probably pretty simple for someone who codes daily. However, since coding has not been in my test engineering career path, and my CS degree is rusty, I did not do very well on these. I found it curious that so much emphasis was placed on C/C++ coding for a testing position, but apparently that is the Garmin development model. I was also asked general lifecycle, testing/QA, FAA regulatory and avionics questions, which I thought I answered well. The Garmin recruiter then took me to lunch in the cafeteria, where I had an opportunity to ask questions and recap my qualifications. I left with hopes of receiving an offer, but 2 days later I received a form rejection notice by email. Attempts to follow up with HR and with persons who interviewed me were unsuccessful. To their credit, everyone was professional and pleasant -- but don't expect any debriefing if you don't get an offer.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Group/Panel Interview.
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Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Embedded Test Software Engineer at Garmin
Posted Jan 13, 2011 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2010 in Olathe, KS (took 3+ weeks)
Applied in garmin site, got a call from manager to know about my experience. HR arranged a phone interview for 1hour. I would say its kind of discussion rather than interview, he was more interested in my experience. Got call after two days to confirm onsite interview. Onsite :: I met four teams besides HR, first team guys asked me about my experience and I was given some C code to write requirements (reverse engg), overall first one was simple. Second was with the manager I spoke in phone, he was trying to explain his work rather than asking me questions (OK). After this HR took me for site tour and lunch. Soon after lunch, another guy with logical puzzles. I have answered all of them and its kind of general HR questions ( No technical questions). Final round was with two young ppl who were not interested to listen what I was trying to explain. Overall, I understood that the teams who are interviewing will look for specific skill, If you feel that you have the skill they are looking you can attend the interview. Otherwise, it is waste of your one day. BTW... they would ask you get a work example which no one will ask in the interview. you can even take c=a+b C program.. however they r not gonna ask about your work example. I would really suggest attend garmin onsite interview if you have NO other thing to do!!!
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and an IQ/Intelligence Test.
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Helpful Interview?
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Inappropriate?
Senior Engineer at Garmin
Posted Dec 12, 2010
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Mar 2010 in Olathe, KS (took 2 days)
In short, don't ever apply. If you really must, insist they have to pay for everything, including rental car/airfare/etc.. all up front, or good luck ever getting it back.
Garmin was apparently really wanting to hire people, as various people I know there were asking if people were interested in applying. So after being requested to apply and interview, because Garmin really needs experienced avionics engineers, I quickly got an interview. I drove 5 hours to get there, and the next day had interviews with all the managers of their avionics division. Interviews seemed okay. Drove back, and waited... and waited...
It took Garmin a month to tell me they were not interested, which at that point, I didn't particularly care. However, they still hadn't paid back my travel expenses. Even by their standards, which are below business courtesy rates, they owed me several hundred dollars. Their HR personal would not reply to e-mail or phone calls, or even indicate what I needed to do to get reimbursement. The only reason I finally got it was because I know people who work there, who made sure the HR people understood they had to do it.
An expense check finally showed up after 3 months. However two co-workers of mine who gave up, still haven't been reimbursed after more than 1/2 year. Based on this I would recommend never to interview/apply/work for Garmin, as I have never seen a company so lousily treat applicants. Even places that did not make me an offer always promptly reimbursed me travel/interview expenses incurred on their behalf.
Interview Questions
I.e. have only the 17th bit left in a word
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview, a Group/Panel Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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