I was contacted by a group leader after he had received my resume through an employee referral. The phone call lasted about 15-20 min and we talked about the job opening and my research background. A few days later, I was contacted by a recruiter to apply to a specific requisition so that an on-site interview could be arranged. A couple weeks later, a recruiting assistant gave me the interview details (who I would meet with, when, and where). Two weeks after that, I arrived at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, CA where I interviewed one-on-one with five different people for about 30 min each, gave a 1 hr seminar about my research background, toured the campus, and went out for lunch. All of the interview questions were technical and related to my work; no behavioral questions were asked. The interviewers were all very friendly and professional and showed interest in me and my work. It's been one and a half months after the interview and I have not heard back from them yet. Despite my e-mail and phone inquiries, no one at the company will give me an update on my application to give me a definitive 'yes' or 'no'. According to their careers site, my application is still "under consideration by hiring manager" and has not been updated since I first applied. I hope it is not their common practice to just completely ignore their candidates after interviewing them.

The interview followed a pattern typical in academic settings. It lasted from about 9am to 4pm. I was asked to do a presentation on my past research, which lasted about 50 minutes to an hour. The rest of the day involved meeting with individuals and small groups of scientists and engineers.