I applied online. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at Mathematica
Accepted offer
Positive experience
Easy interview
Application
I applied online. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Mathematica (Oakland, CA) in Oct 2019
Interview
I was notified I received an interview 2 weeks after applying to the job. I was traveling in Australia at the time and they allowed me to conduct the phone screening via Skype, which was very kind. I spoke with the person who supervises my position in the office I applied to and at the end of the call she told me I would be hearing from HR soon to set up an in-person interview. A month after that I was flown out to their office and had 5 interviews with people from various offices/levels. Everyone I spoke to that day was very genuine and the interviews flowed more like a conversation than an interrogation (like some other interviews I've had in the past). There were no trick questions, they just wanted you to talk about yourself and your experiences. About half of the interview was them asking you questions and the other half was you asking them questions - so come prepared with a lot of good questions! Toward the end of the interview day I went to lunch with two individuals who were in the position I applied to. I found this super helpful because it allowed me to get a better sense of the job I'd be doing and the people I'd be working with. The day after the in-person interview I received an email stating they would be checking my references and a week after that I was offered the job.
My interview process started with a 30 minute phone screen and then several in-person interviews in the office (all on the same day). The HR team was awesome helping to coordinate travel and logistics and my interviewers were all very friendly. My in-person interview felt much more conversational than strictly Q&A.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
-How do you manage multiple projects at once?
-Which tasks in the job description were you most excited about?
-Why Mathematica?
-Talk about your research experience
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Mathematica (Princeton, NJ) in Aug 2019
Interview
I applied online, and about a week later they contacted me to invite me for a phone interview. For the phone interview I spoke with a Senior Researcher who supervises people in the position that I applied for. Most of her questions involved why I was interested in working at Mathematica and the experiences I had listed on my resume. She was very pleasant and helpful, giving me a lot of useful information about the organization and the role that I would play as a Survey Research Associate. About a week and a half after this, someone from HR contacted me to ask my availability to come to the Princeton office for an in-person interview. Since I was coming from several hours away, they also offered to reimburse the cost of a hotel for the night. The interview involved five 30 minute long meetings each with one or two people, which included several Senior Research and Survey Analysts as well as an HR representative. Afterwards I was taken to lunch with two current Survey Research Associates. Most of the questions involved why I wanted to work at Mathematica, my past research experience, the experiences I had listed on my resume, and my experiences working in teams. Everyone that I met was very friendly and genuinely seemed interested in my experiences, and they were happy to answer all of my questions about the work that they did and their experiences at Mathematica. None of their questions were especially surprising, but because they sometimes asked similar questions it was a bit repetitive by the end. Overall I enjoyed speaking with everyone that I met and they seemed to really like the work that they did. A few days after the interview, they let me know they would be contacting my references, and two days after that, they offered me the job.