Applied in January for a position to scale-up a pilot line to production scale. Request for resume 2 weeks later. Phone interview about a month and a half after. On-site interview about a month after the phone interview.
The on-site interview lasted from about 9am to 3pm (lunch included). The interview process included an introduction, panel interview with existing team members, HR, a facility tour, and a skills interview.
The skills interview seemed to focus a lot on chemical fundamentals - which is great...unless you are a chemical engineer that has spent a lot of time in the field / workplace and doesn't normally study up on such things. I felt as though the managers focused too much on requiring candidates to be able to recall equations and calculations instead of understanding how to put together and scale-up a process.
During the interview, I asked whether the product that was being produced was a product that the marketplace was asking for, or if it was a product they were trying to get into the marketplace. They answered that it was the latter, and after I asked a few more questions around the business strategy and long-term plan, it felt like there wasn't a solid strategy in place for penetrating into the marketplace.
We mutually agreed that it was not a good fit.