Intel and Phoenix

My final round Intel interview lead to my third trip to Phoenix, and I had nothing to complain :)

My first round was on phone, a cool 20 minute talk, discussed on:
1. my background
2. project work
3. Database interest, since the position was for Database Engineer
4. Basic DB questions - Whats a database? whats a table? whats a join?

This took me to Intel, Phoenix. Arrived at the airport; there were no taxis around, only limos...or probably I see only good things :) Took a limo to San Marcos resort, wow...my first limo trip and I was amazed. Ordered food and watched TV, dozed off. I had a dinner-reception hosted by Intel at 5:00 PM but I slept like a log only to wake up at 6:45, rushed downstairs. The presentation was over and people were almost done with the food too. My manager-to-be was about to leave, I barely managed to say Hi and that I was sorry that I had a headache and I took a nap, too long. He smiled and said that its okay, dont oversleep tomorr and be on time for the interview. U bet, I was on time for the interview. 4 rounds; 2 were technical, 2 were behavorial, each was around an hour. I guess I did well.

Technical questions: Algorithms and datastructures, OS, Diff between windows and Linux, OSI, TCP/IP, Ethernet...Hashing, Indexing, Normalization, some DBA stuff, basic Java, basic C

Behavorial questions: Tell me about yourself, what will you do in these type of situation...your strong points, your weak points, your biggest challenges, your biggest achievements n so on...

It is very important that u ask good questions when they say, Do u have any questions for me, and I had done some research to get real good questions. They were impressed and my interviewers went - I never expected such good questions from a fresh coll grad :)

Then, it was time for lunch. Had food in one of the best cafetarias of Intel. There was a break now, and we drove to the Chandler fashion mall. Major sale in all outlets, did some window shopping...back to the campus, and now it was time for a fab-tour. They took us around the fab labs at Intel and wow, it was so cool. The bunny-suit clad engineers and all the automated machines doing wonderful stuff. The amber color lighting was to enable the chips to withstand light, the floors were porous, the holes were to let the air circulate. The ambience here was purer than the best hospital. And yes, the bunny-suits and the special shoes the engineers wear is not for the protection of the people but for the security of the chips. This was one common misconception people generally have. These areas have to be absolutely dust free.

Intel is coming up with another fab lab in an year time. We saw the construction on. The crane they use is one of the biggest in the US, this crane gets redistributed to other construction sites as and when necessary....We drove through ASU and returned back to the hotel, dead tired. Rested for a while and then, called my brother to come pick me up...