There is a short interview with a team member followed by a panel-style interview where you are asked technical design questions. This was done at a conference table on the factory floor, within earshot of many workers - I found this rather unprofessional. Additionally, it very much felt like a number of the interviewers did not want to be there, with one member leaving the table without a word partway through one of the questions, and returning later.
In my case, the interview questions were the following:
1. Going over past experience for a few minutes
2. Putting together a small mechanism based on schematics, followed by answering questions about what I thought the purpose of the part was, and what purpose certain components served (e.g. "why do you think a washer was used at the end of this spring?")
3. Examining a painted sheet metal enclosure, and drawing by hand the unfolded schematic on a whiteboard. Questions about specific dimensioning and technical callouts were asked.
4. coming up with a solution to a manufacturing problem for one of their parts. This involved examining a part, inferring how it was manufactured, and coming up with a specific alternate solution to get around an issue with the final dimensions.
I have some comments on this process:
- Interviewers would often interject with their solutions to the problem while I was going over my solution. On occasion they would interrupt me before I could finish my explanation, and I felt as thought they were looking for a specific solution - Engineering design problems, often have many potential solutions, but they seemed to want me to find the same solution as they did.
- I made it clear in my resume and when talking to them that my experience with sheet metal had been quite limited. I was told this was fine, but subsequently judged harshly on my analysis of the sheet metal part.
- I proposed many manufacturing solutions to question 4, and the panel's response was often "we tried that" or "we didn't try that but we don't think it would work." After I eventually arrived at the solution they were looking for (with some interjected guidance from the panel), it was revealed to me that it took their team several months to arrive at the solution - yet, they expected me to come up with the same solution within a 15-minute window.
After the interview was over, I was directed to the HR representative who informed me that they would be in touch in the coming week, and if I made it to the next round, there would be a one-on-one interview with the CEO. However, I was never contacted back.
Overall, the interview and company left a bitter taste in my mouth. If Vanrx wishes to continue their silicone-valley-esque interview methods (which, even when done correctly, are widely seen as predatory to the employee), they need to screen their questions better and be ready to accept answers that deviate from their own solutions.
