I participated in what they call "Rapid Recruiting". 3M R&D team leaders basically pick up a few candidates they'd like to invite on-site from their target schools, and the candidates go through a two-day session as a group. It consists of a tour, a research presentation (~1hr), and non-stop (behavioral) interviews with the team members. I had behavioral interviews with a total of 12 people or so. The presentation and overall schedule were excellent; however, I was treated poorly later probably because I told them that I have a pending offer from academia, which they clearly found offensive. I sensed that interviewers were meeting in the back of the office to decide what different questions they should ask me. Otherwise, the interviews were casual, and a few technical ones. Later, I emailed multiple people about whether I got the job, but they completely ignored my emails. (The experience was absolutely great but I was disappointed with them for how they ended the communications) Overall, I got the feeling that they were looking for chemical engineers. They found my background too theoretical even though I am an experimentalist.

Applied through college in Aug. Initial screening interview after two weeks after submitting resume and supporting documents through their university recruiting link. It involved a short (<30 min) research presentation. Most likely reason for this presentation is for the interviewer to assess the communication skills of candidate and check if the background fits in any of the 3M's research divisions or corporate lab. 3M generally (at least appears to be) doesn't know the specifics of who they want for these research positions. In one way, they use exploratory method to see if the experience and background of a candidate could be used in its R&D. One month (can be more or less for others) after this screening interview, hiring manager invited for 3 day "rapid" recruiting event. ~30 candidates are invited for each of these events at a time with a total that is around 100. These 30 candidates are interviewed for different positions. Candidates competing for your position are invited (must be?) in a separate event conducted at another time. "Rapid" means 3M uses "yay" or "nay" approach at the end of the event (10-16 interviewers) to give offers/rejections at a faster rate than their normal pace (normal seems slow from other reviews). Event will be organized with some order where 3M tries to showcase their different technologies using their technology table (they call it their peridic table, what?) on first day and how they are trying to combine (this is what corporate lab does) them to innovate (this is what each division does) new products. They also talk a lot about McKnight principle, which sounds nice (unsure if it has a great success rate or followed). Scientists here mainly like to talk about patents (metric of their impact). They also discuss pay and benefits (not the best). Some challenges for people with two-body problem. Second day is for candidates (1 hour time) to present. The audience could have different backgrounds ranging from people having no clue to experts having some idea of the underlying methods (audience involve industry scientists). Show off your communication skills as this is one of the main point of this presentation. Third day is a day long and potentially biased "behavioral interviews" by interviewers (experienced scientists/team members from the team that is recruiting you). Can have more than one team interested in you. Conversation in this process can be formal to extremely casual depending on the interviewer. Some members tend to keep it formal and others could be casual in their attire and could be drinking (professional?) as it happened during the interview. Some wont ask questions and talk about what the goals of the division or lab. Questions are generally about past experiences, how you think and future goals (whether you see yourself in one of their two ladders). Some of the questions are based on their personal experiences with a team having different backgrounds (culture and education) and in general being different (sub?). They say the questions have no right or wrong answers but there is (must be?) a right answer. It is (could be?) the answer that matches with their behaviors or existing 3M community (does this mean - diversity in behavior/thinking is not encouraged?). Some of the questions are listed below. Candidates are also given an opportunity to ask questions to the interviewers. Recommended to ask everything ranging from the specifics of the position and about work-life balance at 3M. You may or may not like this interview process that costs three to seven days or more of your lifetime (is it a lot?). At the end, according to internal resources, 3M uses (seems to be) ghosting approach. This means, if you don’t receive an offer in two weeks or less ("rapid" part of recruiting), you may not hear from them for months. No feedback or rejection for several (can be) months. (Will or should they change their approach? or stay disrespectful? ) Likely reason for the delay is that they wait for confirmation or background checks to be completed for the candidate who they have (must be?) offered before removing you from the waitlist or notifying you. This is in essence their interview process (fair? efficient? effective? professional? inclusive?) with some details (unfair) ignored.