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Hello, jobseekers and blogaholics!
I’m Ian, an engineer at Intel and a proud member of the Rotational Engineering Program , or REP. Because I’m all about fun following business, first I’m going to tell you about the recent REP recruiting event we held, then about a new hobby of mine that the RE community introduced me to!
The REP is an extremely small percentage of Intel’s total recent college graduate (RCG"> engineering hiring. To give you an example, the total number of people in my “class” (i.e., 2010 college grads) is… 25 engineers. That is all. Needless to say, the competition to get in the program is pretty fierce, but it’s not impossible, as evidenced by the fact that I’m typing these words to you now. But because we want to ensure that those 25 engineers will be intelligent, dynamic forces in the Intel landscape, we fly as many REP candidates as possible out to an Intel site for extensive interviewing, an event we call REP Rush.
REP Rush 2010 occurred in late October and began with an arrival day and a tasty dinner here in Oregon at a local joint that’s a favorite among Intel employees. Once all REP candidates were warm and fed, they were treated to speeches from the manager of the REP, as well as from an REP alum who has found final placement, and one of the current REs (yours truly, actually ).
So far, this sounds pretty cushy. Intel flies you out to Oregon, then feeds and entertains you. Not bad, but the laid-back first day contrasts pretty sharply with the second day’s gauntlet of interviews. Many RE candidates endure over four hours of interviewing over the day. Interviews range from technical (“Do you know your stuff?”) to behavioral (“Are you a slacker or a jerk?”). Following this exhausting tour of Intel’s conference rooms, the REs took the candidates out for a night on the town. In downtown Portland, we walked around and sampled local venues until all the candidates waved the white surrender flag and returned to their hotel. The candidates flew back to their schools over the next few days. By the end of the experience, the REs knew the candidates and the candidates knew us, and everybody could be confident that the right hiring and accepting decisions would be made.
Okay, that’s enough business for now. Let’s talk about snowboarding! Living in Portland, I see Mount Hood out my apartment window on every clear day. It’s huge and imposing in its solitary domination of the skyline. Now, I have travelled the hour to one of the ski resorts there with several other REs and other assorted friends and have begun down the rocky path of the snowboard master. On my first day, I wasn’t so much snowboarding as I was falling down with brief periods of snowboarding in between.
Interestingly, the resort gives names to every runnable section of mountain, and they’re pretty fun names, like “Outer Limits,” “Catacombs,” or “I Hear Cars.” The name of the fearsome slope that tested my mettle so sorely, you ask? Buttercup. On my second day, I had graduated to actually snowboarding on Buttercup, punctuated with infrequent tumbles, flips, and crashes. After a particularly successful run, the main RE contingent pulled up alongside me, taking a break from the trickier runs higher on the slope. They informed me that I was ready for my third day, on which I would leave behind my Buttercup-only lift pass and graduate to an All-Mountain pass.
We’re going back this weekend with a group about twelve REs strong. And this time, I’ll be going with them to the top!
I’m Ian, an engineer at Intel and a proud member of the Rotational Engineering Program , or REP. Because I’m all about fun following business, first I’m going to tell you about the recent REP recruiting event we held, then about a new hobby of mine that the RE community introduced me to!
The REP is an extremely small percentage of Intel’s total recent college graduate (RCG"> engineering hiring. To give you an example, the total number of people in my “class” (i.e., 2010 college grads) is… 25 engineers. That is all. Needless to say, the competition to get in the program is pretty fierce, but it’s not impossible, as evidenced by the fact that I’m typing these words to you now. But because we want to ensure that those 25 engineers will be intelligent, dynamic forces in the Intel landscape, we fly as many REP candidates as possible out to an Intel site for extensive interviewing, an event we call REP Rush.
REP Rush 2010 occurred in late October and began with an arrival day and a tasty dinner here in Oregon at a local joint that’s a favorite among Intel employees. Once all REP candidates were warm and fed, they were treated to speeches from the manager of the REP, as well as from an REP alum who has found final placement, and one of the current REs (yours truly, actually ).
So far, this sounds pretty cushy. Intel flies you out to Oregon, then feeds and entertains you. Not bad, but the laid-back first day contrasts pretty sharply with the second day’s gauntlet of interviews. Many RE candidates endure over four hours of interviewing over the day. Interviews range from technical (“Do you know your stuff?”) to behavioral (“Are you a slacker or a jerk?”). Following this exhausting tour of Intel’s conference rooms, the REs took the candidates out for a night on the town. In downtown Portland, we walked around and sampled local venues until all the candidates waved the white surrender flag and returned to their hotel. The candidates flew back to their schools over the next few days. By the end of the experience, the REs knew the candidates and the candidates knew us, and everybody could be confident that the right hiring and accepting decisions would be made.
Okay, that’s enough business for now. Let’s talk about snowboarding! Living in Portland, I see Mount Hood out my apartment window on every clear day. It’s huge and imposing in its solitary domination of the skyline. Now, I have travelled the hour to one of the ski resorts there with several other REs and other assorted friends and have begun down the rocky path of the snowboard master. On my first day, I wasn’t so much snowboarding as I was falling down with brief periods of snowboarding in between.
Interestingly, the resort gives names to every runnable section of mountain, and they’re pretty fun names, like “Outer Limits,” “Catacombs,” or “I Hear Cars.” The name of the fearsome slope that tested my mettle so sorely, you ask? Buttercup. On my second day, I had graduated to actually snowboarding on Buttercup, punctuated with infrequent tumbles, flips, and crashes. After a particularly successful run, the main RE contingent pulled up alongside me, taking a break from the trickier runs higher on the slope. They informed me that I was ready for my third day, on which I would leave behind my Buttercup-only lift pass and graduate to an All-Mountain pass.
We’re going back this weekend with a group about twelve REs strong. And this time, I’ll be going with them to the top!
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