Last fall, I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and received an offer from Intel. The journey to get there was tougher than I had expected, but it taught me a lot about myself.
The preparation was the most challenging part. I spent two months really getting into the details of Intel’s technology, even reading up on their chip architecture and development history. I remember staying up late one night working through Verilog examples, and my roommate jokingly said I was getting obsessed. But that deep dive into their tech paid off when I could talk about Intel’s latest processor tech in the interview, which left a great impression.
The technical interview was nerve-wracking. I was asked to optimize a cache design on the spot. Suddenly, I remembered my time working on FPGA projects at CMU and started sketching out timing diagrams. We ended up discussing how quantum computing could impact traditional chip design, and before I knew it, the interview was over.
What really made me anxious, though, was the behavioral interview. When I was asked about handling team conflicts, I shared a story from my senior project where my teammates and I had a major disagreement. We stayed up all night working through it, and by the end, we came to an agreement. I could tell the interviewer appreciated the real-life example.
Before the final round, I practiced my responses in front of the mirror. Then, out of nowhere, the CEO asked me about my thoughts on RISC-V, which was actually the topic of my thesis. We had an in-depth discussion for about 30 minutes. When we wrapped up, he said, “You’ve shown us what we’re looking for in future engineers.”
Looking back, Intel wasn’t just looking for someone with technical skills. They wanted to see a genuine passion for the field. All those late nights perfecting circuits and sweating the small details were proof of my commitment. My advice to anyone applying is: don’t just focus on coding problems. Dive deep into what excites you in tech, because interviewers can easily tell when someone is truly passionate.
Release time:2025-04-30
