I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at SAIC in Apr 2012
Interview
Applying for jobs at SAIC is very easy. You simply fill out the online applications within their system and you can use the same forms for every position you apply for. If SAIC is interested, a recruiter will contact you and give you some basic information on the job. The recruiter will also ask you some basic questions to see if you are still a good fit. If you and the recruiter have a good "unofficial interview," they will refer you to the hiring team/supervisor for the position for a phone interview. If you do well on the phone interview, which the interviewers will typically tell you right away, you will then be referred back to the recruiter for salary negotiations and an offer letter. Once you have agreed on a salary, an offer letter will be sent via e-mail with specific instructions on how to accept. You can contact your recruiter at any time for questions or concerns. Once you accept the position, you have to wait for government approval (if you are being hired for a contract position), and then you get your start dates. Overall the process is very easy and everyone at SAIC was extremely helpful and professional. The only bad part that I would mention is that the process is extremely long. If you are getting hired for a contract position, expect a wait of thirty days or more before actually starting the job. This is not SAIC's problem though, as it is the same across the Defense Contracting business.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The questions are all based on each individual position. There were not any general questions asked of me that another candidate would have been asked. They were mostly based off of my resume, so make sure you know your resume by heart going into the interview.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at SAIC in Mar 2011
Interview
My experience was not standard: I was contacted by a mentor who had heard I was available for a new position and able to relocate to a new city; he referred me to the hiring manager and arranged a phone interview. When I contacted the hiring manager, he was ready to hire me; he really seemed to just need to confirm there weren't any quality reasons to reject me. After the phone interview, I applied for the position on the company web site, and attached my resume and cover letter through their web interface. After the hiring manager completed a number of other interviews, he contacted me to discuss availability dates. Once we agreed on a start date, he submitted my info to the HR department and they sent me an offer. The offer was straight forward and no real reason to negotiate. Even if I had wanted to counter-offer for salary or benefits, I didn't see an easy way to do that, since the offer was sent from the HR department and not directly connected to the hiring manager. Because I knew that the business unit had reached its contract dollar limit, I figured that countering for salary would cost me the offer. So I accepted and traveled across country as fast as I could to start on time.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
"You say you're a self-starter; give me an example of how you stay motivated and on-task when you are left to work alone"
You're education includes an MBA; what part of your studies directly helped you succeed on your $11 million construction project? Give an example of how you resolved conflict among the design team and the contractors.