I arrived to the Lincoln campus at a little before 9:00 am on the day of my interview. I waited about 20 minutes for the HR representative to retrieve me from the lobby. The interview began with the HR representative asking general questions about my background. Things along the lines of, why are you interested in this job and why are you looking to leave your old job? This discussion was very friendly and informal. This initial stage took about 30 or 40 minutes. The second portion of the interview was with the group leader. It was at this point that I received a full description of the position. This was perhaps the most intense part of the day and the only part that felt like I was being quizzed. After this hour I though all was lost and I should be getting on my way. After the first interview, I met with about 5 more members of senior technical staff and technical staff members for 0.5 hours a piece. These interviews were much more colloquial. Mostly we talked about things that were on their mind or small problems that crop up while doing research. This portion of the day went well. Following the morning of interviews I met up with a few of the people I saw throughout the day at the Lincoln cafeteria. I tried to initiate casual talk about some of the technical problems I heard about throughout the day and everyone was responsive. Lunch turned out to be pretty fun. To end the day, I met with 3 or 4 more staff members and gave a hour long seminar before my quick HR exit interview. The seminar was on some of my Ph.D. research and was received with interest even though it was an unfamiliar topic for many people in the room.

Group reached out to me very quickly after submitting application (within 1 week), and scheduled an interview the following week. The interview was a half-day on-site interview with the group. During the interview, I met with HR to discuss the Lab's logistics (security clearance, organizational structure) and benefits. I gave a 1-hour technical presentation to the group on my related work. I then had a series of small-group and individual interviews with members of group, which varied from discussions about my presentation, a hypothetical case study problem, and a technical breadth examination.