So, how is it like to get an on-site interview from Qualcomm? It’s… AWESOME. It feels more like a fun trip rather than a frustrating experience! Of course, they still grill you hard on the interviews. After all, that’s how interviews are. But what awaits after those interviews are beaches, surfing, wave machines, volleyball, clubbing, great dinner and ferry tour at night to see San Diego’s nightscape. And those are parts of your official 3-days interview schedule. You don’t have to spend a single dime. Your mission is to get in to San Diego, ace the interviews, play at the beach, and get out. Not too bad, eh? =)
Day 1: Fly to San Diego, Baby!
It was Thursday morning, November 12, 2009. I only slept 3 hours the night before, because I had to review some stuff that they are going to ask on the interviews. I packed all my stuff in 30 mins, call taxi (and yes, they even pay for the taxi to the airport just in case you ask, you cheap bastard.. >=P) and went to the airport.
Pittsburgh airport at around 11:00 AM. Shops are just opening. Not many people yet.
I got hungry because I hadn’t had have my breakfast yet, so I went to TGI Fridays inside the airport. My flight was still an hour and a half anyway. And I got a HUGE craving for some ribs that I had to satisfy!
Yummy TGI Fridays ribs!! Finally, my wish is fulfilled. Now, I can fly to San Diego and sleep on the plane.
It took me around 6 hours from Pittsburgh to San Diego. I had to transfer at O’Hare, Chicago. I arrived at San Diego around 7-8 PM.
I coincidentally met with a student from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Patrick, who was also interviewing for Qualcomm. We took a chance to pose in front of this great van that drove us to our hotel.
Reached Hotel Marriott! Look at the size of the room they had arranged for us! Remember that this is a one-person room. Why 2 beds then? It’s AWESOMENESS.
I scattered my belongings on the other bed, and tried to look at some of the documents they gave us earlier: a schedule, a map of San Diego, subway card, $25 cash. Time to use the cards for dinner!
Me, Patrick, and a Chinese guy we met earlier in the lobby, Ron, went together to Subway across the street. Subway, the cheapest and closest food source available that time, was filled with students from all over the country. And they all happen to be interviewing for Qualcomm as well.
Ah, good ol philly cheese steak Subway sandwich!
After finishing our dinner, we met Jana and Alyssa, the Qualcomm coordinators of this event. We chatted a little bit with the rest of the interviewees and headed back to our room. I spent a couple more hours before going to sleep to prepare for the interview next day.
Day 2: The Judgement Day
This white bus and the gentleman took us to Qualcomm HQ. This bus is filled with men in blacks who were going to fight for their fate in a couple hours.
Pre-registration on the Qualcomm headquarter. Everyone was given a name tag. Everyone looked slightly intense.
Nice shot of Qualcomm logo right there.
A cool dude from Georgia Tech I met on the site, Justin. We threw some quizzes to each other before the interview to warm up ourselves.
Me with Qualcomm bag! After this shot, we had a short briefing on Qualcomm, the campus itself, and the interviews. Then, we were guided to a big room where we had lunch before the interview.
Alright, here it is.. Everyone just had finished their lunch and we had another short briefing before the interviews.
They give us the schedule for each interviewee. Here is mine! C/C++, Problem Solving, and OS. Each interview runs for 45 minutes. Better do good, David. Better do good. I kept taking pictures up to this point, but it would be very weird to take pictures on the interviews. Basically, we finished all the interviews, went back to hotel and prepared ourselves to be picked up for a dinner.
We had to ride a ferry to get to the dinner place. Yes. I AM ON A BOAT. EVERYBODY LOOKED AT ME BECAUSE I’M SAILING ON A BOAT. Ok, it was actually just a small ferry.. =P But it was nice because we could see beautiful San Diego’s nightscape from the ferry.
Land, ho~~!
The restaurant we had our dinner at. Pretty stylish look from inside. We had our dinner outside because the weather was nice and it has a better view outside.
Isn’t it cool? Here is the shot of the people from other tables. City lights and building lights illuminating from behind. Each table has 8 or so people with 1 staff from Qualcomm.
Me with Diwakar from CMU. He attended more than 10 schools and knew almost everyone in India. No kidding, everytime we meet somebody, he always has some connection with the person.
We self-introduced ourselves to each other and discussed how the interviews went.
Main course: Beef Tenderloin. The name was a lot fancier than just Beef Tenderloin, but I could not remember it because it was so delicious!
Group picture of our table. After this we went back to hotel to get some rest after a long day. Schedule for tomorrow: surfing and volleyball at the beach!
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