MIT Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Mar 2007 (took 2 weeks)

This was an internal referral, so I was interviewing with people I was mostly familiar with already. I was interviewed by one person and then he was joined by a colleague for the second half of the interview. The interview process was fairly casual in terms of attire and also how they approached asking me questions. They may have discussed questions in advance but it seemed like most questions were improvised. Most of the time they diverged from a written list of questions.

A few days later I was interviewed by a group ("the team") in a small office. There were 5 people present asking me questions and I didn't really know any of them. The group interview was not structured and was quite chaotic. I was able to ask them questions and found myself leading the interview at points. Later on it became more of a free for all when we got onto a hot button topic. I found the group trying to steer my responses in their direction (to their point of view) , I mostly agreed with them but chose to hold my ground. Based on their responses I realized that this position was not a good match. I later told the two main hiring managers that the position wasn't a good fit.

The Information Technology group there is interesting, the culture is fairly laid back and flexible. Many people work unusual schedules and are able to come in later and work later or work half days. Some people are able to work one day from home. This is a big part of why they're able to retain employees. The atmosphere is more artsy/newsroom than a Dilbert cube farm. People work hard but are still fairly chatty and they tend to congregate in the break room at lunch time. No one wears suits and very few people dress up. If you're wearing something nice, you either have a presentation or you're headed to a job interview. Overdressed people draw suspicion.