SpaceX Senior Hardware Engineer Full-Time Interrupted Onsite

Role: Senior Hardware Engineer
Result: Candidate withdrew during the onsite
Report time: May 2023
Professional experience: More than ten years
Experience rating: Strongly negative

Before the onsite

1. The candidate completed two technical phone interviews.
2. A technical presentation was prepared and sent to the team three days before the onsite.
3. The team allowed the onsite to proceed without providing substantive feedback on the slides.

Onsite

1. The candidate delivered the presentation.
2. A few presentation questions were asked, but the candidate reported that they were unrelated to the field of study.
3. One one-on-one interview followed.
4. The next interviewer did not appear.
5. The recruiter was also surprised and could not provide an explanation from the hiring manager during the next ten minutes.

The candidate described the presentation as average rather than disastrous. By the end of the day, no explanation had arrived. The candidate then withdrew from the process because the unexplained interruption felt humiliating and unprofessional.

The source was cross-posted in two communities; both posts describe the same application cycle and are counted once.