The process took more or less two months since I applied online until I declined to move forward with the interview process. Some context about me: I have several years of experience both in industry and academia. I have worked in projects funded by different government agencies and also by industries. Some context about the position: It was a very technical position. Preferred experience and required skills included: * Experience in machine learning, algorithmic foundations of optimization, data mining or artificial Intelligence for creation of design and optimization tool chain for component design, optimal engineering iteration and close loop design modification incorporating test data and/or manufacturing variations and/or service data from usage. * 5+ years of related experience in the field of power generation and engineering, particularly gas turbines, steam turbines and generators. * Hands-on coding skills and ability to quickly prototype in Python and C++. Further experience in Scripting languages such as Java or LINUX environment tool chain is a plus. * Technical proficiency in languages such as Ansys, NX, R, WEKA, Pandas, Octave and Matlab. * Hands-on advanced proficiency in handling and analyzing large data sets such as next-generation sequencing data. * Experience in optimization (Integer/Linear/Quadratic/Nonlinear Programming/Multi-objective/Stochastic). * Previous experience or knowledge in the field of finite element analysis, computation fluid dynamics, probabilistic reasoning, dimensionality reduction, decision trees, and performance analysis is preferred. * Familiar with metallurgy and mechanical behavior of material and must have a deep understanding of the relation between material-microstructure and property. The interview process: In my case, the interview process had two stages: i. One interview on the phone with a recruiter. ii. One interview on the phone with a technical person. The conversation with the recruiter was about my background and my career interests and goals. It was nice and helpful. The technical person was in charge of a team of 10-15 researchers and software developers. I can say it was one of the most weird interviews I have had in my life. I applied for a technical position (see description above), but he was not interested at all in my technical skills because the team already had an "adequate number" of technical people. He told me the team was struggling a lot to show there was a real market need for the products they were developing. He also mention this point was very critical in the evaluation process of the team performance. He wanted to find someone to help him to identify "clients" or "costumers" for the products. His ideal candidate would be a person with entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to identify potential "clients", create contacts and construct relationships. In other words, he was looking for a candidate that would focus on bringing funding to the team. What he had in mind was to write proposals in collaboration with universities and other industries. He mentioned he was already doing that. He emphasized several times he was mainly interested in a candidate with contacts in academia, government agencies and industry, as a demanding part of the work was going to be related to searching for funding. He emphasized several times he was being very honest. I told him I was not interested in this kind of job. Then he asked me to be introduced to my contacts in industry, academia and DoE.