I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Aug 2009
Interview
I was initially contacted by hr for a brief discussion about what the company was looking for and if I was interested. The hr individual was very kind and pleasant to speak with. This first phone conversation took roughly 20 minutes. Once it was determined that I have the general skills required for the job and that I was interested, a phone interview with the hiring manger was scheduled.
The conversation with the hiring manager was kept to about 30 minutes. Again, the individual I spoke with was very courteous and was able to answer all my questions. The hiring manager let me know that they would like me to come in for an in person interview.
When scheduling the in person interview I interacted with the same hr individual as my first interview. It was nice because I was familiar with the person and felt that if I had questions I could ask them. I was provided with a list of names of people I would be interview with along with a schedule of the days events. This was nice because then I knew the names of the people before they sat down, and I knew how long the interview was going to take.
I arrived at the office and everyone I talked to was knowledgeable about their work. They were all very easy to talk with as well. The interview did not get extremely technical, but did hit on a few key technologies that the group uses. Overall, I met with 6 different people from DBA's and Developers, to the manager and director. The interview itself took roughly 3.5 hours.
Overall I was very impressed with the people I had interaction with. The environment seemed challenging and the work interesting.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I didn't encounter any unusual interview questions.
Went for the interview through campus placement. Interview was offline and conducted at their office. The first round consisted of questions on coding, dbms and projects mentioned in resume. Interviewers were helpful.
Interview was straightforward and pleasant as far as software interviews go. Group interview with the team who then reviews and comes to a collective decision on whether to hire you.
1 Behavioral with the recruiter
1 Behavioral with the manager
1 Panel - Fairly straightforward, vocabulary of languages, what would you do in this scenario, systems design questions, nothing really too difficult
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you solve a problem you're unfamiliar with