I applied through college or university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco in Oct 2012
Interview
Went to a career fair at my college and gave them my resume. They scheduled an in-person interview.
The interview was mostly behavioral - asked questions about working in groups, how I have dealt with challenges among group members, how well I think my verbal and writing communications skills are, if I have used oscilloscopes, multimeters, etc. The only real technical questions were what does DC coupling mean to me, what do I think an embedded system is, etc.
Then, within two to three weeks, I received a phone call from an HR recruiter saying I got the job and they sent me an email with the details. Told me to fill out an application and background check stuff (nothing too detailed). I got the official offer and accepted it.
Overall, a very simple and easy process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It's hard to remember, and I don't know if I even understood it at the time but it was something like this:
You are at a party, and there are five other people. There are seven hats, 2 blue, 2 white, and 3 red. Everyone is wearing a hat including you. You can see everyone else's hat, but not your own. What color hat are you wearing?
It was a pretty easy interview. There were some technical questions as well. Some questions they asked were tell me about your experience, why you are a good fit. Overall, it was a pretty easy interview.
Hardware Engineering applicants have rated the interview process at Cisco with 2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 100% positive. To compare, the company-average is 68% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Hardware Engineering roles take an average of 28 days to get hired, when considering 2 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Cisco overall takes an average of 27 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Cisco as a Hardware Engineering according to 2 Glassdoor interviews include:
Background check: 50%
One on one interview: 50%
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