I have been positioning myself for this job for quite some time. Through networking and building my reputation I was able to hire in under one of my previous supervisors. Of course I had to apply online like everyone else, but my angling was very helpful. There was a one-on-one interview with the group manager as well as a panel interview with some of the more senior employees in the group. Experience and technical know-how is very valued in this job, and they were looking for people who not only could talk the talk, but who could walk the walk.

LM was my fifth interview during my job search (for reference I am a new PhD). All other companies/universities were very long days (e.g., my Sandia interview was from 8 am to 6 pm) with a technical presentation; this interview was less than 3 hours with no talk. It consisted of a panel interview with the project PI, the program manager, the manager and the staff manager (on conference call). No questions were terribly difficult. While there were plenty of technical questions, the experience seemed to be more of a trying to assess personality and problem solving than raw skills, which is what you would expect and hope for from a division that needs outside of the box thinkers.